Digital Vision. / Getty Images
Every profession has its frustrations. And sometimes you just feel like giving up on humanity. Teachers are no exception to life's aggravations.
Reddit user Cubbysablo asked:
"Teachers of Reddit, what is something a student of yours has said that made you think 'wow, there is no hope left for you?"
Within 9 days over 15,000 responses were received. Here are some of the most shocking.
He Knew Where He Was Headed
"I don't need to do any of this shit, Mrs. A. I go to jail next week for stealing a car."
Checked up on him five years later, and he was in jail for slamming his gf into the concrete, paralyzing her. aggiechicken
Name Your Sources
Principal at an inner city high school. I had to sit down with a student who had been caught plagiarizing for a second time. This time.... from The Onion. SmoothyMcfly
Rubberball/Mike Kemp / Getty Images
Talent Might Be Required
High school teacher here
"Dude, if you don't start coming to class and doing the work, you'll fail out of school."
"School's done nothin for me. I'm gonna rap to pay the bills, bro."
Kid was an awful musician. Couldn't make a beat. Couldn't write a rhyme to save his life. DangerousKidTurtle
Maybe More Than a Few More
Kid (totally serious) "I'm going to drop out. I'll make money off of YouTube"
Me "How many views are your videos getting?"
Kid "I have 4 subscribers, so I just need a few more" gamsambill
If It Was Easy, It Wouldn't Be Work
"Can we just not learn this? It's hard. We should just skip it." RestEqualsRust
Million Dollar Listing
"I don't have to get good grades. My grandfather owns a house and when he dies, my family is going to sell it for a million dollars, so I won't have to ever get a job." RestEqualsRust
That's Not What Random Numbers Means
Spent 15 minutes on a math lesson, do examples. hand out worksheet, do one ON the worksheet with them. He asked: "So you just want us to fill this in with random numbers?" Speechless. Mathgailuke
Eric Raptosh Photography / Getty Images
Criminal Aspirations
"I want to be a drug dealer, but the cool kind. You know, the ones that wear a suit and carry a briefcase." He was 17 at the time and completely serious. He was expelled a month later for jumping another student. Icon7d
Family Tradition
My wife told me this story about a time she was lecturing a kid on why he should try to do well in school. She asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up... his response "I want to be in jail. That's where my dad and uncle is." She had no response. Probably the only time in her career that she was left speechless by a student. anash5289
bobbieo / Getty Images
You Mean Accounting?
I teach high school math/geometry. One of my students said "Why do we even need math? All I care about is money." His classmates proceeded to laugh. C11Scriber
Law is Related to Government
I teach 1st year US law students. More than you would care to believe, they don't know America has 3 branches of government, much less what the branches do. Pali_Upekkha
Too Young
I had a first grader throw chairs and desks at me for about a week (after 2 months of horrific behavior that the parents and administration ignored), one hard enough to injure my knee, before I finally had enough video evidence for the principal to get involved. He (student) refused to speak to me at all. Eventually my co teaching partner got him to explain why he was doing it. "I just don't like him."
I feel bad for the kid. He has serious emotional problems. I don't know if I'd say there is no hope left, because 1st grade is pretty young to write someone off. I hope he gets treatment. WaxStatue
Just Waiting to be 16
"I ain't doin any of that sh*t. My mom already said she's signing the papers [to dropout] as soon as I turn 16." lazyf-inirishman
Mighty Oaks From Tiny Acorns
I used to teach science in a public high school. Had to convince a sophomore that trees came from seeds... blew his mind. sabrielz
John Lund / Getty Images
For Better or Worse
Not a teacher but worked at a school for awhile. Had a 4th grader say that he didn't need school because he was going to have a wife and she would do everything. Same student while disrupting the entire class also said "What are you going to do? I know you can't hit me." frostyfeet1050
At Least She Had a Career Plan
A girl (8th Grade) told me she wanted to have kids (2-3) by the time she was 18 so she could have the energy to keep up with them and then be an exotic dancer to support them. MSUSpartan06
Ariel Skelley / Getty Images
Motor Skills
I had one 4 year old who couldn't hold a pencil. He couldn't remember how to pick it up, and didn't have the strength to push it down hard enough on the paper to get any leverage. He couldn't color, had no motor skills whatsoever. He didn't have a dominant hand. His parents liked to leave him at my learning center for an hour, even though he couldn't use the bathroom on his own. He was 4 years old and didn't have the slightest grasp of the alphabet, and couldn't retain anything we taught him. It took a month to get him to count to 10.
My theory on all this is, on top of a learning disability/developmental delay his mom was in denial of, he was a natural lefty who was forced to use his right hand but, because of the disability, couldn't, and ended up not developing any motor skills in either hand. Poor kid. Kelevra29
The Ugly Caterpillar
I taught lower elementary. Most teachers will get frustrated at some point by how hard it can be to get a child who may be lacking upstairs some extra help. This was the case with one of my favorite students. It didn't matter that he couldn't do any of the work that his peers were doing, due to his incredibly low IQ, he was performing "at his ability level." But he was just SO NICE to everyone.
I had set aside time every day to help him with his reading. We were using the short story of the ugly duckling. It had one short sentence on each page and after two weeks, he could get though it with minimal help. However, reading the words isn't all there is to reading. I had asked him if he could tell me what the story was about since we had spent time on it every day for the last two weeks. He starts his oral retelling off great and I'm super excited. This is a HUGE deal for my man because up until this point, I couldn't get any retell or comprehension out of him. I'm super pumped and he is feeding off my energy and he's so proud of himself. This kid is glowing.
We are only 3/4 through the story though. We come up to the end of the Ugly Duckling and he's telling me that the duckling CHANGES (this word took him forever to say, much less read!) But then he stops. And goes into this deep think stage. I prod him a little bit- "He changes? What does he change into bud?" He brings his eyes back from the ceiling and then with the biggest smile, he shouts out "A butterfly!" Vrael90
Just How He Is
My wife had a student in 3rd grade who refused to do any writing assignments. My wife told him that she was going to call his parents to explain to them what was going on if he didn't start doing his work. He said, "I don't care. My mom said I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. Rules don't apply to me." My wife called his mom and his mom told my wife that she (meaning my wife) just has to understand how her son is and if he doesn't want to do the work, then he doesn't have to. His behaviors all made sense after that and it was a very tough year. He stopped doing all work and started harassing other kids (probably partially due to boredom since he was doing nothing else by the end of the year). As long as he was happy, my wife couldn't get the mom on board. Shostakovich22
It's Professor, Not Babysitter
University professor here. A student last term never purchased the text book (and thus never did his homework), sat in the back and spaced out all class, failed one exam, and barely passed the other. He came to me during the final week of class to ask me if he could do all of his missed assignments and then asked why I didn't remind him to do them. Bro, this is university. I'm not chasing after you. PeriwinkleAppleTree
Ariel Skelley / Getty Images
My Heroes Have Always Been...
While teaching about a particular historical figure, I try to wake this kid up.
"Did he sell drugs?"
"...no."
"Then I don't give a sh*t." Colpicklejar
Professor Mommy #2
I had one who stopped coming to class for the last 6 weeks of semester, and instead of writing the essay on the exam, wrote a 2 page rant about how "unfair" it was of me to base the exam on stuff that happened in class. Also in the rant, complaints about how I had not called her to remind her to do assignments, come to class and find out what was on the exam. Unicormfarts
skynesher / Getty Images
Parental Misguidance
There's a young boy who can be very sweet and is an adorable blonde butterball. However he has pretty severe behaviors and gets restrained at some point on a daily basis. I saw his parents one day because they live in government subsidized housing close by and walk him to school. It was 50 degrees out and the little boy was in a basketball jersey and shorts. His parents looked exactly how I expected them to look and were rude to all the staff they interacted with. It just showed me that no matter how much we do, he spends most of his life with his parents. Kukulkun
For The View
"I don't need to go to college, because it's easier to see God when you're in the gutter." Chel_of_the_sea
True North
After months of learning about maps and cardinal directions in our grade 9 geography class.
"Is North always the way you are facing?" Thisguysciences
Maybe YOU Won't Use It
I had a student say, "I don't need to learn any of this, I won't use it in real life". When I tried to explain why math was going to be useful, he responded, "you're a dumba**, watch me get rich without even going to school." I mean sure it's been done but probably not the best idea.
"Are we ever going to use this as an adult?"
"You won't, but some of the smart kids will." manymensky JETAlone01
dcdebs / Getty Images
Do I Need to Use a Computer?
I teach Computer Science in university. I get a lot of freshmen that plucked the major because they heard it was a high paying major, but don't actually like the subject.
But the worst was a recent student that asked if they could just do the assignments by hand. They didn't want to use a computer, they didn't really like using them. "People use computers too much, I don't want to start doing that." Also thought computers could do too much, and wanted people to stop using them. Brah, this is a programming course. For computers. In a major about making computers do things. You are gonna need to use a computer.
Needless to say, I told them this wasn't probably the major for them... thecinnaman123
Hero Images / Getty Images
M.R.S. Degree
I had one student at a bilingual school in Mexico, who after being at this school and supposedly learning English for 5+ years, still couldn't speak it and barely tried to make any effort to learn anything. Didn't do assignments and failed almost every test. When we mentioned it to her parents, their attitude was that she doesn't really need it because she will just marry someone who will take care of everything for her. My thought was, "Who would want to marry someone who doesn't know anything and makes no effort?" shweatyyeti
Hand Holding
I asked my students what they could have done to better prepare themselves for their exam. One responded with "you should have told me to revise better".
The revision sheets and "this is reallyyyyyy important" wasn't enough apparently... TheBlondeGeneticist
Wide Blue Yonder
"On a map what is the blue part, the water or the sky?" thestonez
Historic Map Works LLC / Getty Images
