It seems like our teachers thought they could get away with anything. While many are influential to our educational experience, there's always a rotten apple or two in the bunch. You just couldn't win with them, and they made your life a living hell.
braken_yt asked: What is the rudest thing a teacher has said/done to you before?
Good call.
"In the two years I had him for, my GCSE computer science teacher was a complete dick to a select few in the class. His worst offense was on the last day any of us had to see his face, on clearance, which is basically when you get your teachers to sign a sheet to say that you don't owe them anything.
Well, I went to get him to sign off computer science, he said we all owed him our revision guides. I told him that I vividly remember him providing the workbooks and us buying the guided, and not the other way round. I also mentioned that he didn't give us any advance warning meaning that half of them had been burnt because we all hated the subject, then asked why he even wanted them back anyway.
He basically told me to STFU, so we all went to a different computer science teacher who wasn't ours and got him to sign us off instead."
What a phony.
"7th grade geography teacher taught the class literally like Professor Umbridge. She would give us a packet at the start of the class, and we would have to copy it word for word into a notebook. There was no need to talk. Total insult to the intelligence of the class.
She went out for one of those teacher of the year contests and once the cameras were out, totally different lesson plan (we sat in a circle and analyzed the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" while she was fake nice to everyone. Gross.)."
P.E. teachers can be the WORST.
"Got a bad haircut/highlight in 6th grade. Middle school friends kinda teased me and called me "highlighter head." After I told them it bothered me, they all stopped because they were good friends.
Our PE teacher heard them call me this, and proceeded to make fun of my hair every time I ran by her during our warm up laps. Pissed me off enough that I stopped warming up and started talking to my friends. She made all these excuses afterward and said that she wasn't actually saying anything bad.
Man, I hated her."
That's frustrating.
"I was 11 and had just started secondary school. I didn't know anybody, which is only relevant as it meant I already felt incredibly shy and self-conscious.
I was in a DT lesson with a teacher who was rumoured to be terrifying. I needed a pair of scissors to complete whatever task we were doing.
"Sir, where are the scissors to?" I asked.
"...You've got that HORRIBLE Bristolian accent that I HATE!" came his response.
I was really taken aback. I managed to stammer, "...Um...well, I live in Bristol, Sir."
"So do my sons and they don't speak like you."
It all just seemed so unnecessarily nasty and humiliating.
(For what it's worth, I do now know it's grammatically incorrect to say "to" at the end of that sentence, and I wouldn't do so now, but it is a dialect thing. You'll hear many a Bristolian saying, "Where you to?" or "Where's that to?" instead of Where are you? or Where is that?)"
Did they stretch before that reach?
"In 5th grade I joined the cheerleading squad and they were pretty strict about the color socks and footwear you wore to each game. One game I messed up and wore blue socks rather than white (but was still in our school color scheme of blue and white) and the teacher in charge told me I wasn't going to amount to anything because I "couldn't follow simple instructions and made the whole squad look ugly."
Like... kay, thanks Coach. I didn't return to cheerleading the following year."
Talk about a power trip.
"In my junior year of high school, I had a teacher refuse to pronounce my first name correctly. My name is Alisha, pronounced uh-lee-shuh. Easy, simple, fairly common name, if oddly spelled.
She decided that because there's an "I" in my name, it should be pronounced "uh-lih-shuh".
I'm used to people getting the spelling wrong, and I have an unusual last name that nobody can pronounce, so correcting her was easy the first time. I figure she's just accidentally mispronounced it. Nope.
She tells me, in front of the whole class, that obviously the way she says it is "the right way" and that she will call me that going forward because clearly my parents have made a mistake in how my name is said. You know, for the last 15 years.
At this point, I've gone to school in three different school systems in as many states. I've been in this school system longest. I have had teachers call me very rude names, literally steal my book from my locker, try to intentionally fail me because I was a tomboy, and embarrass me because I always raised my hand in class... all in this ONE school system. Now this lady wants to f---ing telling me how to pronounce my name during our first ever interaction? Nah, not gonna go down.
"If you expect me to answer to you, you're going to say my name correctly, or I won't respond."
She turns her nose up at me, and things calm down. Then suddenly, she calls me by the mispronunciation. I don't bat an eye lash, because f this b. She stands up from her desk and walks toward me and calls me again. I sit there.
SHE LITERALLY GOT IN MY FACE. And called my name the wrong way again.
I sit there.
She threatens to have me sent to the office for being disruptive. I just looked her deadass in the face and said "Go ahead. I'm sure when it comes out what you're doing, it'll go really well for you."
She sent me to the office. They call my parents. My parents show up, throw a fit, and eventually a couple of students admit to what the teacher did. Suddenly, she started calling me by the right name.
Eat s**t, Mrs. Fields.
What the hell....
"This one's easy.
I was an overweight elementary schooler. I had my gym teacher loudly declare in front of the whole class that I could skip the jump-roping exercise we were all doing, "because he didn't want to risk an earthquake."
A TEACHER said that to a child? WTF.
"My teacher in 3rd grade saw me asking my female friend if I could borrow a pencil, so she said, very loudly:
"If you want to kiss, just go to the bathroom!"
I was bullied for the entire year and when I pointed out that I was being bullied, the teacher just said:
"Then stop being a p*ssy! Ask her out and they will stop!"
I had never wished to torture someone before."
Don't disrupt the class for that???
"I used to doodle around the edge of the pages on my workbook during school lessons, it helped me concentrate on listening the teacher while keeping my hands occupied. One teacher when I was 11 stopped the entire lesson when she saw me doodling and had me cut off all the drawings on the page while the whole class watched. IMO that shows no respect to the different learning approaches kids have, she should have just ignored me and continued the lesson instead of disrupting it for everyone.
I still doodle to this day, glad I didn't let her mindset affect mine!"
Way to attack your student for being good at something.
"8th grade teacher was convinced my parents wrote the speech I had done as a presentation in her class or that I plagiarized it. Her reasoning behind it was "I was too stupid to write that." Despite absolutely no evidence of plagiarism, she decides that she's going to report it as such and I get sent to the office, they then proceed to berate me there for about 40 minutes and demand that I "rewrite the entire speech if you didn't plagiarize it" so I do, it's not perfect but REALLY close to the original. The principal agrees that ya I did write the original since my second one was so incredibly close.
My teacher was unconvinced for some reason, so insisted that my parents MUST have wrote it then so they requested I be suspended from school, the principal of course said "absolutely not, they clearly wrote this." So I leave the principal's office. Later that day I'm informed by the Vice principal that I'm to receive a 3 day suspension for "cheating" by having my parents write my project for me. I explain to them what happened, they don't want to hear it, so I tell them to go talk to the principal instead, they do and the issue is resolved.
You'd think that would be the end of it but, nope! About a week later all the other kids get their grades back for their speeches, but not me. I don't think much of it until weeks pass and still no mark, at this point I get my midterm marks only to see that I'm failing English HARD (the only projects due for this were the speech itself which was ~80% of the mark and some random other stuff I had aced). When I then go and ask "what the hell?" I hear back essentially "your delivery for the speech was bad, the draft you handed in was full of spelling errors and bad grammar, inconsistent information, etc., etc." To which my only response was "you mean the speech you were convinced I was "too stupid" to have written based on my delivery alone?" To which she responds with "well I could show you but I must have misplaced your hard copy". "Good thing it just so happens I have a spare one right here" I respond as I see her actively starting to get mad.
She then proceeds to snatch the papers out of my hand and starts pouring over them trying to point out any and all "problems" she can find. She starts randomly circling parts of the sheet, crossing letters out, etc., etc. When she's finally done she proceeds to hand it back to me with an abysmal grade written on the top.
I at this point just take the paper directly to the principal's office who I hand it to and ask "does this seem right to you" after less than a minute of glancing at the paper he asks me to "step out of his office for a moment" while I hear my teacher being called to the principal's office over the PA. I see her walking up, she sees me sitting outside with a smile on my face and realized what was going on, proceeds to walk into the office, and I then overhear the principal absolutely tearing into her for a good 10+ minutes. She then leaves the office and I'm called back in, he then tells me that I'm to be exempt from her class for the remainder of the term and I will receive an automatic 90% in the class; however, I am to report to the office during the time block for that class and I'm still expected to complete all of the work, readings, etc. for that class according to the curriculum. To which I immediately agree.
To this day I'm still not sure what the actual hell my teachers problem was with me, or why in the hell she decided to take something so stupid so far."
You showed her.
"My senior year math class, I had this teacher who despised all the girls in the class. She loved the boys, who would constantly cause trouble, but punished the girls for it. Great start.
Regardless, I've always been shit at math and was getting by with a C, which shouldn't be a problem. C is average. In the middle of class after a quiz one time she told me to stay after class to talk to her (my lunch was right after this class, so dick move anyway). I walk up to her desk and says, very deliberately, "(My name), do you /want/ to go to college?" Conversation is as follows.
Me: Yeah. Her: Where are you planning on going? Me: (My current university). Her: You /know/ you need four math credits to get in there, right? Me: Yeah. Her: Just thought I should remind you.
I can't explain how condescending her tone was. I'll never forget this, I was so pissed off. She was always on my ass, and rude to me for no reason. Said something along the lines of I wouldn't succeed in college if I was getting a C in her class a couple weeks later.
Going into my sophomore year of college now with a 3.8 GPA. Screw you, Mrs. K*****."
This person had really bad luck with teachers.
"There was this one science teacher that hated me. Always would move me away from my friends for talking, even if she saw that I wasn't talking. One day, we were talking. She stops, glares at us, and says, "Do you want to get separated?" and we all said no, as you would. She said, "Good, it's not like anyone would want to sit next to you anyways. Right?" and looked around at the rest of the class. They all nodded. I was crushed.
Another teacher named Mrs. Jenkins. One of my cats had gotten hit by a car while I was at a friends house. When I got back home, my mom broke the news. I was shattered. Took the next day off of school. When I got back, the teacher asked me why I didn't have my homework. I said I was absent. She asked why. I told her. She said she didn't care that my cat died, and that the death of my pet was less important than me missing one day of school. I didn't do any work in that class the rest of the year.
A teacher once called me braindead and said I had selective hearing because I couldn't hear her across the entire classroom. Same teacher refused to grade an essay even after I rewrote it four times, even after I went to the principal about it. I ended up with a 84 in her class, one point off of a B, because of that.
TL;DR: 7th grade science teacher said that no one wanted to sit next to me. Class agreed.
6th grade english teacher said my cats death didn't matter and wasn't a valid excuse to miss a day of school and not do my homework that I never even got.
8th grade social studies teacher called me braindead, said I had selective hearing, and purposefully gave me a C in her class."
Teachers need to chill about students using the bathroom.
"In 5th grade a teacher yelled at me and embarrassed me in front of everyone because I raised my hand to use to rest room. I was a quiet well behaved kid. But I had a bladder issue and I would use the bathroom once a day in his class.
One day when I raised my hand he flipped out at me and really embarrassed me in front of everyone. He was an asshole."
What an awful thing to say to a student.
"It was back in high school... history teacher, he was the basketball coach and not really qualified to teach. Anyway, he gave us an essay exam, and I used some creative writing skills from another class to turn my answers into stories, as well as responding to the question.
When he finished grading and returned the essays, he kept mine. Had to read it in front of the whole class, he thought it was so great.
Later that week, he was in a terrible mood -- one of the members of the football team decided it would be funny to lock him out of the classroom. Everyone else just stared at the situation trying to figure what to do. Once the prank was done and he was back in front of the class, he started reaming everyone out. Finally got to me. Called me a low-talent hack, screamed at me in front of everyone that I wasn't taking the class serious, even changed my grade from an A to a D for the exam. Threw a book at me even, although missed and broke the window.
Long story short, severely wounded my high school ego. Didn't write for years after that humiliation. But I did report it to the principal and somehow was able to skip class and have my own "study hall" in the school library. Also got an A. Might have been due to my threatening to sue, I'll never know.
His contract wasn't renewed the next year. But damage done, took me years before I was interested in writing after that."
Wow.
"I was at an all boys boarding school and it was rather religious.
The Chaplin or priest who was a prolific alcoholic was teaching us religious studies and we were fucking with him. You know the usual blurting random shit and not listening.
He then had enough stood up, picked up his book threw it down looked at us and pointed and said "you are all fucking brainless". He then walked out and we still had half the lesson to go."
Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.