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| Who was your meanest teacher ever? |
We've all experienced it at some point in our lives ... The meanest teacher ever. Think back, maybe you'll recall a grammar school teacher who made every day a living hell. Maybe it was a high school teacher that had it out for you ... each day more torturous than the last.
For me, it was third grade. We'll call her Mrs. Jones. She was a total hideously scary beast. Please forgive me for being 100% candid here, but she really was one sick, ugly, old broad. Lucky for me, my folks yanked me out of that hellish classroom and transferred me to private school before Thanksgiving. But the pain I endured for the first few weeks of third grade, truly were unbearable.
Every once in a while, I forget about it... Then something happens and the feelings of insecurity and worthlessness come back. And to think, this was just a teacher. It makes me cringe thinking about kids who may have lived with parents who made them feel this way. I was lucky, I only had like two rough months of adult vs. child bullying.
Making my classmates clap if I finally got a math problem correct. Making me position my desk next to her desk so that I was physically facing the class for weeks and weeks. Each day she'd tease me, taunting that if I was good, maybe I'd be able to sit back with the rest of the class. That never happened. I don't know what prompted such treatment. Was I was caught whispering or passing a note to another student? I was an upbeat, fun-loving kid. She broke me. She broke my spirit. She made me feel stupid.
As the child of two teachers, I was taught to always be mindful of the other students and treat teachers with respect. I didn't think to say anything back or tell another teacher. How could I win against the ruler of the class?
It wasn't until my mother was forced to sit alongside Mrs. Jones isolated from the other parents, facing them throughout an entire Parent-Teacher night, that she realized what was going on. It was then that she understood that my morning stomach aches were more mental than physical. It was at that moment, she knew why on Sunday nights I cried in bed and dreaded waking up on Monday mornings. I would have welcomed a natural disaster every day over having to drag ass into that classroom awaiting the doom of Mrs. Jones.
Years later, somehow, people found out that Mrs. Jones had a drinking problem. I'm not sure how they discovered this scandalous bit of info ... Perhaps Mrs. Jones was suspended? I'm not quite certain, but one thing was confirmed... She was a mean, horrible, angry drunk who took her evils out on small children.
A former classmate of mine found me on Facebook and we talked about how things went in the early fall of 1980. I had no idea there were others who were shamed and humiliated at
Mrs. Jones' expense. Though this doesn't make me feel better, at least I can mentally accept the fact that it wasn't just me. It makes me feel better knowing there were others.
Your turn ... Please share your story of the meanest teacher you've ever had and thanks for reading.
13 comments:
Oh I had the Primary School teacher from Hell, and I still blame her to this day because of my trouble eating!
One lunch-time, it was fish, which I don't like at the best of times, and I've been a veggie for years.
But, she sat opposite me, and said that I was going to eat that fish if it took me all afternoon. After about AN HOUR...I was in tears, and still had not touched the fish on my plate.
She ranted and raved at me, gave me a lecture about how fishermen had almost lost their lives to put this fish on my plate...and I was even more in tears because of that!
Honestly, after about two hours, she finally gave up and let me go.
I still remember that to this day...and I still don't eat FISH!
Mrs. Bailey. 2nd grade. She hated me!! She tried to convince my parents to put me on ritalin, and would never drop it. Come to find out, I was just a little more advanced than the rest of her class, so I got bored easily and I got a little rowdy because of it. And she hated me for it. I had a morning teacher and an afternoon teacher. The other teacher absolutely loved me. She is still one of my favorites. :)
My English Teacher in the 11th grade was one heck of a piece of work. Mr. Blackwood. On the one hand, he was inspiring because he was one of a handful of teachers that deviated from the "book" and taught us some proper skills like the ability to argue your point and to try interpret freely. If you had a convincing enough argument to you could usually ace his class.
On the other hand he was sort of mean, a bit lazy and he totally held grudges with the students. I was caught in his cross-hairs when I ended up missing the class final because of a family obligation that pulled me out of school. He let me take a make-up exam, but he decided not to include it in my final grade (I passed it even), so I ended up failing that English class (our final was like 30% of our grade.) Thing is, that next year there was a new school built near us and half of the class that had been going to the one transferred to the new one, me included. I didn't realize I had failed and it never came up until graduation when all of a sudden I was pulled aside and told I couldn't participate. It took ton of calls from my parents and hours of stupid arguments to get Blackwood to admit that I took the make-up exam and passed it, but for a couple weeks I thought I was going to miss graduation because he was being spiteful. In the end the school made him cal our family and personally apologize. Think I still have the answering machine tape somewhere...
my 2nd grade teacher, mrs flieschman, was so batshit crazy that she left 2 kids at the zoo because they weren't back at the bus on time.
my 8th grade math teacher called my father to tell him i needed to do makeup work to pass (he had failed me the semester before for not having a pencil, something he gleefully announced to then class). when i went to him after the class he told me that he lied to my father, i couldn't do any makeup work, and he just wanted to tell me again that he was going to fail me. out of all the school bullies i have ever known, he is the only one that i would like to meet again in a dark alley.
Mine was second grade, Mrs. Cornett. Like you, I hated her, wished her ill maybe even dead. If she was absent, I thanked God for making her sick, if she was at school, I tried to fly under her radar. She was one mean bitch. To this day, when people asked me my teaching style, I tell them I know what not to do thanks to her.
Funny but true story about her: She was always comparing her much younger daughter to us. "My daughter can do this" and "My daughter can do that." was part of almost every lesson she taught. Years later, I took graduate courses with said daughter. I shared with her how much I hated her mother as a teacher and how she ALWAYS compared our skills to her. She laughed and said that she wasn't that advance, no matter what her mother said.
The old bat was just yanking our chains, making us feel stupid because she could.
So sad on so many levels. A bad teacher can ruin a kid for years. I have had some poor educators in my time, but none of them compare to the stories here. I am so sorry for all of you that you suffered this way. Thank God for the good educators who make up for psychos like these!
She was actually the vice principal, and her name was Mrs. Assenheimer. Not making this up!
What is it with 3rd grade teachers? That was when I had my mean teacher too. Mrs. Perkins. I don't remember details of her meanness because I have mentally blocked much of my childhood. I know I mostly like school until 3rd grade, after 3rd grade I started to hate school and played sick to get out of going. I blame her for my lack of success in school.
What I do remember is that through most of my childhood I had a nightmare about falling down a flight of stairs, never knew what caused me to fall in the dream. 3 years later, when I was about 11, I had the dream one final time and finally saw what caused me to fall. It was HER, dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West pushing me.
(Interesting twist is a friend's (friend is older and not from around here) son went to the same school many years later and also had a hard time with a 3rd grade teacher.)
Mine was 3rd grade too, but I no loner remember her name. I do remember that I didn't want to get her for 3rd grade because of the stories I heard beforehand and was heartbroken when I was put in her class. I never did well in school and had trouble with math and reading. I'm sure today they would say I had a learning disability, but back then there was no such thing.
However, I did have a wonderful teacher for 6th grade. I was in the lowest group and for the first time in my life I felt good about myself because Mr. King made me feel like I could do anything. That's the only grade where I look back and have good memories. I think I'd do an Oprah and cry again if I saw him.
My teacher was shit i mean once i got sick and she poured ice water on me. Once she called my mom for having a spoilt shoe.I mostly scored A but she told me to go foundation classes.I remember once she left me and my other 3 friends at school cuz we were 3 seconds late for the FRICKING BUS.When you leave a question blank cuz u dont know how to do,she will go retarded and scream at our faces and lie to our PARENTS THAT we did not do our HW.FORTUNATELY my friends parents complained about her and she got fired.our next teacher was really nice so i liked her.
My art teacher in 6th and 7th grade named Mrs. Marshall. She screamed at everyone for no reason and gave me five detentions that I did not deserve. She bent the rules for some of the kids by letting them get out of detention, not having their parents sign detention forms, etc. She moved me to ALL 10 of the sit alone desks in her class. I had an art report due and I turned it in one day late (-15 points which is understandable) and she took off 20 points because "my sentences were not long enough". She talked about statutory rape and how men should always wear condemns when having sex (keep in mind this was not sex ed class) and how she goes into college art classes to strip in front of them so they can draw portraits of her. She always threatend to call my parents which she never did. She even got so mad at my class that she shouted "You know what guys, afterwards I may just kill myself". I reported her in hopes of getting her fired but it didn't work thought she did have to prove to the cops that she wasn't suicidal and was forced to give a class apology. She picked favorites all the time and was not afraid to show it. She wouldn't let us talk even though it was an elective class and if we talked then we would get detention. Her only method of dicipline is screaming, changing your seat, threatening lunch detentions 75% of the time and actually giving them out 25% of the time. Terrible teacher
I had this really mean art teacher in 6th and 7th grade. Her name was Mrs. Marshall. She always screamed at me for no reason. She moved me to all 10 of the sit alone desks in her classroom. She constantly picked favorites and oftentimes bent the rules for them (letting them get out of detentions, being able to get away with talking, not having parents sign detention slips, etc...). She would not let the class talk or if anyone did she would scream the shit out of herself literley (she was saying how we made her scream so much that the kids in the special ed room could hear her screaming). She talked about statutory rape and how men should always wear condemns when having sex (keep in mind this is art class not sex ed class) in addition to telling us how she goes to college art classes to strip in front of them so they can draw portraits of her. She got so mad at the class one time that she screamed "You know what guys, afterwards I may just kill my self". I did an art report which I turned in one day late (-15% which is understandable) and she took off 20% because "my sentences were not long enough". She gave me five detentions (three of which were for talking in an elective class) and the other two were bs. She threatens to call my parents which never happens. She was a terrible teacher.
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