Teachers are supposed to enlighten and inspire. Sometimes it goes terribly wrong, and students are subject to some really awful abuse.
MsMerdaccino asked: What is the meanest thing a teacher/professor has done to you?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
You're never too young to learn.
A public speaking professor announced on the first day of class that freshman shouldn't be allowed to take the class, I was one of 3 freshman. I decided to stick with it since I needed to take it and generally didn't know better so I figured it was just her way of warning us it would be difficult.
I did well on every speech and every assignment with black and white answers, but somehow always failed horribly for assignments with interpretative answers. I finished the semester with a 72.3% but 72.5% was the minimum to receive credit for the class.
I took it again junior year, used the same speeches, and coasted with an A.
I hate teachers that decide you can't do something because of your age. The teacher doesn't know who you are.
Seems a bit unfair.
I failed a gym class based on lack of participation, even though I tore my miniscus in football.
Everyone loved that teacher, but you can go f*ck yourself Mr. G.
Those teachers that everyone loves but did something bad to you so you are the only one who hates them and no one understands you.
This is a really low blow.
I had a teacher that knew me and my family and knew that I was adopted and that my biological parents had abandoned me. I don't quite recall why it happened, but I remember him saying something along the lines of, "no wonder your parents threw you away."
That's beyond cruel.
I was abandoned and the only time in my adult life I have ever wept like a baby was to someone i cared about saying this to me.
A little empathy costs nothing.
My dad passed away at the beginning of one of my semesters. I emailed all of my professors as my brother drove us to the hospital he was at, letting them know the situation and that my dad would likely pass in the next couple days. Most of them were very kind and understanding, but one of my psychology professors said, "I'm sorry to hear that. If you had come to the first class this morning, you would know that the in-class participation points can not be made up. You'll also have to get the notes from another student!" I was dumbstruck.
That's the kind of emails that should be forwarded to the dean, department head, and local news.
I got an A in the class so I wasn't worried about the points. I was just absolutely shocked that a professor of psychology, who of all people should know how traumatic times like that can be, chose that tone and dismissive attitude. And this was a 200+ person lecture. I didn't know anybody in the class, so on top of everything I had to ask a complete stranger for their notes.
File this under 'solutions that don't work.'
I had severe social anxiety as a child and normally didn't speak in school unless I was spoken to first.
One day in fifth grade, we had a cultural food day where we were all supposed to bring in food from other cultures. My mom made some of those frozen taquitos for me to take. Somehow the taquitos got set off to the side and when it was time to eat, they didn't make it to the food table. I was too afraid to tell the teacher my taquitos were missing, so I didn't say anything.
After everyone got their plates, the teacher found my taquitos (I think they may have gotten left in the microwave or something) and started screaming at me in front of the whole class about how I should have spoken up. Then she insisted all my classmates come back and get taquitos and made another snide comment to me when I came to get one. It was pretty traumatizing for 11-year-old me.
I don't remember much about fifth grade as it was over ten years ago, but this forever stands out in my memory.
Nothing encourages you to speak up more like getting screamed at for not speaking up.
Did the teacher feel like he had competition?
Grade 9 teacher took out a girl who liked me, and I liked back, out for lunch and told her to stay away from me because I won't go anywhere in life.
She ended up being right but f*ck her.
Why did she end up being right? Are you maybe just too harsh on yourself?
Let's just say I had higher expectations for myself lol.
When teacher feels threatened by a student smarter than they are.
My 5th grade teacher told me that I plagiarized an essay. My parents confronted her after seeing an F on the essay they saw me work on, and the reason she gave was that it was the best essay anyone in the class had written, but she didn't think I was smart enough to have written it myself.
My 5th grade teacher would do the same thing. She would tell kids they had to prove they didn't plagiarize. We even as kids knew that it was impossible to prove that.
Also, she taught us how to use a thesaurus. When we used said thesaurus for it's intended purpose to write better essays, she said that was cheating because we were not smart enough to understand the new words we learned.
I just don't understand that mentality. Unless you can prove without a doubt something is plagiarized, isn't it better to just let it go and get an A? How is potentially skewing a child's perception and respect for authority better than giving some cheating kid an A who will probably be caught in the future?
Monster.
Called me a disgrace to humanity and an abuser of women when I was 13
I wrote today's date on the wrong side of the page.
If I had a dollar...
One of the things that messed me up the most was when one of them called me a "lost cause" in a class I tried hard in.
I had a teacher do this too. He told me to my face in front of friends that I wasn't good enough to go to an art college. It hurt, especially when I had to give volleyball after being told the same thing.
I still did art anyway, mostly out of spite but because i knew I was good at it. I went on to art school too and the spite still drives me.
I had UC. It's hell, and focusing on work is one of the only ways to keep going.
Not me, but my daughter, who has ulcerative colitis. In her junior year in high school she was in hospital 4 times and was in constant pain. Her weight dropped from 125 pounds to 55 pounds in 3 months. She was literally skin and bones. One of her teachers refused to take the make up work she did during one of the hospitalizations. I said, " have you SEEN Her? She weighs 55 pounds, and still got the work done." Teacher replied, "Well, that escalated quickly." Had to go to the principal to get the grades put in for her work.
55 pounds
GEEZ. No offense intended but how was she still alive at that point??
With ulcerative colitis it is possible to lose weight rapidly. Dozens of bm's per day depletes weight and fluids. She is tough, but that her teacher didn't even notice what she looked like, was the most infuriating thing to me. She literally didn't even SEE her.
Wonder who this teacher voted for in 2016?
I was born in the states, but my parents are Hindus from India. I was 10 years old in 6th grade when 9/11 happened (just 3 weeks before my 11th birthday). So we all got to go home, school was closed the next day, and we came back to school the day after that.
Mrs. Kell made me and the Pakistani girl who didn't speak English stand in front of the class before asking us to tell the class why we hate America. I remember being so confused. I stuttered and said "I don't hate America" to which she responded with a loud and thunderous "GET OUT. GET OUT OF MY CLASS RIGHT NOW!" I froze in fear and tried to fight my tears before finally leaving as she screamed at me again.
I wandered the halls for a few seconds until I couldn't fight the tears anymore. I curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out. Another teacher, Miss Walton, found me and comforted me. She was very kind and grandmotherly. When she heard what Mrs. Kell did, her face abruptly wrinkled into the angriest face you'd ever seen. She stomped into Kell's room and screamed her lungs out.
I try not to hold grudges. I know anger is normal but that it won't do me any good. But I sincerely hope Mrs. Kell outlives her children. What an awful f*cking animal. She also always made fun of me for wearing torn shoes and the same clothes every day (I grew up very poor).
Edit: ironic how I grew up to become a highly decorated US soldier who fought in Afghanistan and became a teacher myself after leaving the military.
But I sincerely hope Mrs. Kell outlives her children.
That's some next level spite right there. Don't get me wrong, it's justified, I'm just amazed at the concept
How to kill a kid's self-esteem...
Grade 7 science class. Exam day. My teacher says to the person I was sitting next to "DaughterEarth thinks she's so smart, don't let her copy off you."
What? Really? Why the hell did you have such a problem with a 13 year old?
For the record I scored an A on that test and the person next to me scored a C. Like I seriously do not understand what that teacher was thinking or what her problem was.
Was she possibly kidding in a terrible manner, like poking fun because you were clearly intelligent? Honest question. One of my favorite students opened up to me her junior year. In her freshman year I made her feel dumb over something that I thought was clear sarcasm of me acting dumb and pompous (sarcastically pronouncing "patronize"). Glad she told me that though, because I quit assuming kids were getting my sarcasm after that.
Memory is heavily influenced by emotion, and if you were at all feeling insecure you might literally remember her "thinks they're so smart" comment when only the "don't let them cheat" comment was made with a wink. Not saying this is what happened, but science, no pun intended, does show us this happens.
I truly believe that a lot of the teachers I had in middle school and junior high were only there because they got off on picking on kids. More than half the teachers I had from 12-15 were f*cking scumbags.
This pitiful setup.
Spanish teacher told me he really didn't like teacher XY because XY was such a dumbass, fool, idiot, etc. and I just replied "Yeah... he kinda is..." and that guy actually wrote me up for "insolence" and I got into trouble with the school for it.
So yeah, Mr. L. if you're reading this: F*ck you. Mr. XY was a friendly angel compared to you fake piece of garbage.
When you project inadequacy...
A level tutor told me not to do an English degree because I wasn't good enough. Did an English degree at a Russell group uni and am now a copywriter. Screw you Richard.
This is all kinds of disrespectful.
Grade 12 Calc teacher told my class we were the reason he's retiring this year, and stapled McDonalds applications to everyone's tests who didn't score 70% or above.
I hate it when people are disrespectful towards people that do basic jobs like that. If we didn't have them, civilization would collapse. You could at least treat them with a bit of decency.
What an absolute dickwad. There's no shame in working, no matter how "lowly" the job is.
