Supposedly, teachers are educators who serve as one of a person's stepping stones. They provide support and establish an individual's base knowledge. In short, they play a crucial role in one's life.
However, one of the worst-case scenarios a person could encounter is having the worst teacher possible. It has a negative impact on acquiring the right knowledge, and it tends to infuriate most people.
1. Bloody Exam
One time, while taking an exam in my Calculus ll class, I got a random bloody nose that dripped right onto the test. Then, I decided to inform my professor about it.
After explaining what happened, she said if I left the room to go clean up, I wouldn't be able to retake.
I was dumbfounded and could not understand how inconsiderate this person was.
My options were to grab another test and start halfway through without being able to copy my previous answers or leave and fail the exam. I walked out of the classroom and withdrew before I got to my car.
Papa_Pickle
2. Job Hater
I liked reading from an early age and was excited to learn literature in junior high. I had a teacher who had just completed her post-grad diploma.
For an entire year in literature class, she would just flip pages and say things such as ‘Turn to page 88. Highlight paragraph 3. That’s going to be tested.’
One day, she had to make up a class on Saturday and started telling us how much she hated her job, and she couldn’t get wasted on Friday night because she had to show up on a Saturday morning and teach a bunch of stinking kids.
She then proceeded to ask us to turn to some page and yell, ‘Just highlight everything. The entire page will be tested!’ She got fired because she got caught making out with the IT instructor in the computer lab.
[deleted]
3. Fast Pacing
I remember having this awful English teacher in 5th grade. First of all, in my country no one speaks English properly so we had 2 English books-Literature and grammar.
I used to love reading a lot, and my grammar was pretty good, so when she solved a particular page with us, I would be on the other three pages and wait for the teacher to come to my page to check my answers.
One day, she saw me not writing and asked me why I was not writing, to which I replied I had already finished, so she asked me to erase all of the three pages and solve with her pace.
Not only that, but the worst part was we had a very difficult lesson in literature once, and we had questions on that the next day. When I submitted my book, she outright said that my parents had done it for me.
It kept on going like this until once, during a test, she accused me of copying, and when I told her that I would be happy to take the test again in front of her, she told me I was arguing.
When she took me to the principal's room to take another test, she gave me the toughest paper for a fifth grader, but how I got 18/20 on my test and finally believed that I didn't cheat.
[deleted]
4. Secret Feelings Revelation
I was once humiliated by my teacher because the guy I had a crush on in another class came into our classroom to ask my teacher something.
A lot of my classmates started giggling, and one of them called my name from several desks away, as if I possibly hadn't noticed that my crush had entered our room.
I was the one who got in trouble, and the teacher threatened to send me into my crush's class and have everyone laugh at me, even though I hadn't said or done anything besides go bright red. My bad for having friends who knew I liked a boy, I guess.
truthtruthlie
5. The Learner
I had a computer science teacher who didn't really even teach the class. On the first day of school, he stood up and said, "I'm going to be honest with you guys. We're going to be learning this material together."
He then pushed it all onto online code camps. At the beginning of every class, he also spent the first 20 minutes going over anything under the sun except for programming.
If your phone went off at any point during the class, he said that you had to buy the entire class donuts, but he was exempt from the rule.
madson812
6. Witch Substitute
When I was in kindergarten, my first teacher got pregnant, so she had to take maternity leave. Then, she was replaced with a substitute teacher to teach my class for the rest of the school year.
She was very strict and not very nice. I had issues with her. But I was a very good student, quiet and to myself.
One day, I asked her if I had to use the bathroom, but she refused to let me go.
I really had to go but ended up peeing on myself. I remember going to the nurse, and then they called my mom. My mom went up to the school and had a meeting with the teacher, the principal, and someone else. 2 Days Later, that teacher was fired.
undergroundfive28
7. The Odd Puppeteer
This teacher is definitely the most strange. Mr. Pratt. He was a substitute teacher I had in high school in the 90's. In an inner city school, he was an older dude with a loud mouth.
There were a lot of bad students, though, who always mouthed back to every teacher, which made learning difficult. Mr. Pratt had an odd choice when responding to these bad kids.
Imagine a well-dressed but definitely ghetto-sounding substitute who, when a student tried to act out, he would pull a puppet, obviously custom-made and looked just like him, suit and all, out of his desk.
He would then start berating the student via the puppet. The puppet was called Pratt Daddy, by the way. He would make the student talk to the puppet and apologize.
Most didn't; they were laughing and trying to talk over Pratt Daddy, which was why Pratt Daddy, the puppet, would kick them out of the class and lock the door. Then, the puppet went back into the desk drawer, and Mr. Pratt continued.
monthos
8. Bad Favoritism
The 4th-grade teacher who led my elementary school's after-school dance program. She was known for her explosive temper and playing favorites. Her favorites were a group of girls who considered themselves “popular.”
Being invited to their pool parties meant that you were ~cool~. This teacher used to invite these girls for sleepovers at her house.
This teacher hated me, and I desperately wanted to feel accepted. So, one day, she was testing the class on the nine times tables, and the test was set up so that we would have to recite it. Some kids were allowed to be tested in private.
I fumbled for whatever reason and started speaking in a low voice out of embarrassment that I was fumbling. I remember her just screaming at me about why I didn’t get anything she taught me.
I wasn’t allowed to sit back in my seat until she was done screaming. I remember shaking and feeling scared and humiliated. Mixed with anger and embarrassment, I snapped my reading glasses in half.
A couple of days passed, and my parents asked me why I was not wearing my glasses until I burst into tears over what had happened.
All I knew was that Mom scheduled a meeting, and well, that teacher didn’t bother me for the rest of elementary school, lol.
[deleted]
9. Queen Of Dirty Ways
I was part of a two-year program in grade 9 in which I took a few classes together in sequence and did a project at the end of each year.
It was near the end of the year, and the project was underway. We were made up of groups from years one and two of the program, so freshmen and sophomores worked together.
I was sick for a week and went to the teacher (let's call her Ms. Module) of the year two students for information about what I missed because she was in charge of the project. She told me it was on her teacher page, and I thanked her and left.
The next day, I got a bunch of texts from sophomores and juniors that Ms. Module had complained about me by name, saying I "wasn't afraid of her" and was a "disrespectful student" for not checking the website first and asking her before school.
She really hurt my feelings and hurt the way my peers view me as a person. She then did it again the next year, this time telling a class of sophomores about how I was "terrible" at presenting and "got a poor grade," something which was false (I got a 92).
I then noticed she set the Google Classroom we used for handing things in to automatically share every document we produced in class, along with our scores on those works, with a woman in Arkansas (I'm in NY) named Jodi.
I asked her about it, and she told me to tell nobody. I asked my friend if he had seen it, and she had overheard me. She threatened to send me to a week of detention if I told anyone else.
The next week, I took my midterm and failed (63%, lowest out of 60 students in her class). I've never gotten less than a 94 on midterms/finals/any English test.
I asked to see it (she just gave me an old regents test, which any English teacher could grade) because I wanted a second opinion. Apparently, she throws them out after grading.
evanroden
10. Name Debate
When I was in the first grade, there was an infamous substitute teacher in my school region. Mr. Hunter, he was called. His name was hissed under breaths and passed on from student to student between schools.
Heavens would help you if you got this grizzled, hunched old walnut that was occasionally pulled out of retirement to bestow his tyranny upon innocent children.
But I was young. Foolish. I didn't believe the stories my siblings told me. And so, being the cutesy teacher's pet I was, I put on my brightest smile the moment he walked into my 1st-grade classroom and said, "Good morning, Mr. Hunter!" With the rest of the class.
"Humph." He said. Or something like that. A displeased, noncommittal noise. It only went worse from there. I have a name that is one of those names that can be pronounced in different ways.
Let's say my name was Kiara and pronounced "Kee-arr-a" instead of "Kee-rah." I'm used to getting it spoken wrong by substitute teachers at this point, so I have no problem politely correcting teachers.
Mr. Hunter got my name on the attendance. "Kira," he said. "Oh! Mr. Hunter, sir, it's actually Kiara, " I corrected in a chirp.
All hell broke loose. This absolute geezer lowered the attendance board and started shouting at little tiny me, telling me that because he was the adult and I was the child, he knew better than I.
My parents pronounced my name wrong, and obviously, I was too thick to realize it. He said it was rude to have corrected him, and for the rest of the day, he called me by the wrong name.
MapleJinx
11. Strangest Ego
I studied architecture a few years ago. I was taking a class that was in charge of this renowned, elderly teacher/architect.
So, we were having a debate about form vs. function, and I made a point the teacher disagreed with. Most of my class agreed with me, and a few classmates made similar points.
Right after class, the teacher pulled me aside and told me he didn't enjoy being embarrassed in front of his students, especially by a woman.
He said I wasn't welcome in his classroom anymore. I ended up "failing" the subject and had to take it again with a different teacher the following semester.
rumazazil
12. A Quiet Place
Ever had a teacher who hated their job with their entire being? Well, that would describe Mrs. S quite well. She was a college professor during the summer and a middle school geography "teacher" for the other three seasons.
I had her in middle school. On our first day of school, she handed out a 10-page syllabus of just rules. This ranged from basic stuff, such as Don't cuss and turn in your stuff on time, to weird stuff, like "Don't talk without her permission."
She took that silence rule very seriously; she hated any noise. She would rarely talk and never gave any sort of lessons in front of the class.
We would walk in, and there would be a tray with our work for the day, and then we would have to take our textbooks out of our bag (no class set, her choice to promote "student accountability") and just sit at our desks and fill in everything on the scantron that came with it.
We did this until the administration came into the room, and then all of a sudden, she was just up in front of the class, being fun and interesting and showing us songs to help us remember countries.
YourStateOfficer
13. Unwilling To Educate
In my last year of secondary/high school, my normal French teacher was on maternity leave, replaced by a woman who spent most lessons on tangents about her life.
She openly admitted to not liking the school and the students to us far too often gave someone full marks on an essay despite knowing full well (by her admission) that it was plagiarized.
But worst of all, her total apathy and decision to force her way out three months before her contract ended put so much strain on our head of languages, a man who is undoubtedly my personal hero.
She came in constantly judging, not ready for a school that wasn't one of the most high-class privates in the country, and basically ruined my hero teacher's year. Screw her.
AThiefsEnd4
14. Insensitive Soul
When I was in 6th grade, we were working on a major project that involved all of the core classes when my grandfather suddenly and unexpectedly died.
Since he lived several states away, I had to miss a week of school to attend the funeral. When I returned, I had a ton of make-up work, including parts of the project I missed.
When I was working with another teacher to get caught up on that class's part of the project, my math teacher came over to explain what I missed in her class.
It was a bar graph we were working on the day before I had to leave and something I had actually completed. When I pulled it out to hand in, she immediately got angry at me for "turning it in late" and told me she'd give me half credit, as if she was doing me a favor.
The entire thing caught me off-guard (you know since I was being honest). It didn't occur to me until much later what an insensitive jerk she was.
I was still dealing with the first death I had experienced in my family and was a little overwhelmed with the amount of classwork I had to catch up on, so what parts of the project I had completed weren't exactly at the forefront of my mind. Still makes me angry to think of how callous that was.
DisturbedNocturne
15. Family Background
My (divorced, single Mom) family moved to a small town when I was in 2nd grade. I have a bad family history, but people don’t know that yet.
There was a boy who was always dressed in weird combinations of hand-me-downs, and he acted out sometimes. When I asked about him, people said he was messed up, and his parents were jerks.
One day, there was some sort of altercation because we had to hand in a family history thing with our parents' notes, and he was incomplete or messed up, and he got mad and gave up.
I stood up for him and told the teacher she was awful (I had lied on my sheet because I was embarrassed about my family, but he had just told everyone what was what).
I got a detention for standing up for him, and he got a five-day suspension for arguing with the teacher and being nasty about saying what he knew about his family.
ElolvastamEzt
16. Breaking Grades
Mrs. J, sophomore English. On the first day of class, she stated outright: "I don't give A's." For this reason, kids who cared about being valedictorians always got their parents to transfer them out of Mrs. J's class.
She made sure that work was graded low enough that nobody could earn an A because I guess she prided herself on being "that" teacher.
Totally ruined literature for me for a long time. I ended up getting my love for words back and eventually became a writer (who runs an online used bookstore as a side hustle).
But I will never forget how incredibly hard Mrs. J tried, year after year, to "break" students simply because she could.
sirdigbykittencaesar
17. Learning Difficulty
In high school, I had a really hard time with math. Apparently, my stupid brain just didn't get some of the concepts like imaginary numbers, grid plots, and complicated algebra problems.
My parents weren't super-educated themselves in this sort of stuff either, so they couldn't help much. So because I didn't understand it, I never did my homework.
The teacher routinely called me out in front of the class when handing in homework. I'd always say I didn't have it, and the teacher would say crappy things like, "Of course, you don't," right in front of the class.
She'd embarrass me by calling on me to answer problems, which I obviously couldn't do, and at one point, said, "If you don't understand this stuff by now, I'm not going to waste my time trying to teach it to you."
I was too embarrassed to ask for help or tutoring because the teacher made me feel so stupid. On the other hand, the best teacher I had was my high school senior chemistry teacher.
It was kind of the same situation, but she didn't make me feel stupid in front of the class... She sat down with me after class one day and offered to sit and tutor me one-on-one every day during a study period so that I could pass.
She took the time to explain things and answer questions so I could understand them. End of the year, I aced my final exam, and it was because of her patience and willingness to take the extra step and teach me.
[deleted]
18. Running Challenge
In Grade Five, my teacher decided the class should run every day; he would keep track of our cumulative total, which would (by the end of the year) be the equivalent of running across Canada.
At the time, I was a rather portly lad suffering from a case of plantar warts on my left foot. Naturally, I would be one of the last kids to finish, usually alongside the less-than-athletic girls in the class.
There wasn't a day that went by where he wouldn't tease me for finishing last, "here come the girls," he would say. Should I ever present a note to get out of running (because I had gotten treatment for my warts), he would tease me and make me feel guilty for letting down the class.
At the end of the year, after we had reached our goal, we were supposed to have a party to celebrate our achievement. He decided we didn't deserve a party since he didn't think everyone gave their all. What a bastard! I hated that guy. Worst teacher I ever had.
Mr8vb
19. Frustrating Struggle
There was this math teacher I had in my junior year of high school. It was an AP Calculus class, and she was adored by so many in the class.
My best friend was on the fast path to valedictorian, and my other friend was a salutatorian when we graduated. This teacher loved them and fawned over them. They understood the concepts easily.
I was, admittedly, only in the class because all of my friends were. I was smart, but math was never my strong suit area. I struggled a lot and would ask my friends for help explaining certain proofs.
The teacher didn't seem to have the patience to help me, so I turned to them instead. One day, the teacher pulled me aside and told me I shouldn't weigh Friend A and Friend B down and that I should work on my own problems without involving them.
As we were leaving class later, I heard the teacher tell Friend A that she should choose her friends carefully and not hang out with anyone who would hold her back because she was really going places with her life.
I cried that night. Ten years ago, I still remember it. It made me feel like crap, and I stopped trying in that class. Went from a respectable B+ to a C- partly out of spite and partly because I didn't have a teacher that would take the time for me like my friends did.
As we all went separate ways in various colleges, I got a message from Friend B years later that that teacher was retiring, and they wanted to go back to our hometown to do a surprise party because of how much she meant to them. "No thanks, I would rather write a dissertation on the flavors of my own vomit."
gehanna1
20. Worst Aim
I was in a science lesson with a cover teacher when my friend knocked my pen on the floor. I proceeded to walk around to pick it up, and on the way back to my seat, I accidentally hooked his bag on my foot and kicked/dragged it a short distance.
Well, my Teacher had none of me maiming my friend's bag and instructed me to get out. I asked why, and she said it was for kicking my friend's bag.
I refused to leave, so she picked up my bags and threw them into the corridor, where they hit the head of the science department. The cover teacher then blamed everything on me, so I got in trouble.
NotLukeH
21. Flavored Cookies
My 2nd grade teacher. Mrs. Johnson was pretty strict with us, and I feel she didn't like me because she knew my family. My dad and mother weren't by any means the best role models.
I was feeling kind of sick that day, and I told her that at the beginning of class. We had this little program that we did where a different student would bring in snacks each day, so my grandma helped me bake some cookies.
I was holding three trays of them that I kept in our school's cafeteria, and when I walked into the classroom door, I started feeling sick.
I asked her if people could just take the cookies and if I could go to the bathroom, to which she gave a bold no; what ended up happening was me throwing up on this tray of cookies in front of the whole class from a sudden wave of sickness.
Embarrassing, but I went to the principal after cleaning up and explained that she wouldn't let me use the restroom while I was sick. She wasn't a very friendly teacher and didn't last long at my school either.
Jollysixx
22. Pointless Discussions
Actually, a teacher I currently have. She teaches this media arts class and is explicitly horrible. The lessons are unclear every time we move to a new unit, so no one really learns anything of value.
At one point, we had to learn design principles and art elements. Although this may sound useful, we were seniors in high school, and we'd already taken art in middle school, so we were well aware of this.
Then, about two weeks later, we spent an entire block (we have blocks instead of periods. They're 80 minutes instead of the regular-sized periods) reviewing them.
Currently, we're developing our own advertisements, which may not seem bad, except we've spent two full days just making thumbnails (rough drafts), and then today, we finally started on our rough drafts.
When we actually start designing them in InDesign, I have no clue. Oh, that's another thing. For all the Adobe programs we're using, she shows a few clips that are the most basic tutorials on how to use the program.
Still, she shows them on this TV all the way across the room, which you can't see or hear, which are both really important as we're all fairly unfamiliar with Adobe software.
coltonj1225
23. Detention Queen
Oh, man. In fifth grade, I had this utter devil of a teacher. From day one, she hated me. To this day, I'm not sure why- I wasn't a bad student by any measure. But every little mistake, even if I didn't actually make one, was treated like the end of the bloody world.
For example, the printer at home ran out of black ink, so I printed my homework in purple that night. Bam, detention. I poured out some paint-water we'd been using for art into the bucket we were told to put it in.
She accused me of doing so in a fashion that made it look like I was peeing, despite the fact that I crouched down to pour it specifically to avoid that. Bam, detention.
But the crowner came one day when I was behind her desk asking for help with something, and a pen fell off the table. I bent down to get it and, in a moment of sheer gravitational crap, slammed my forehead on the edge hard.
I come up, eyes streaming and forehead cut open from the impact, and she looks at the pen, looks at me, and goes, "Well, are you gonna pick it up?"
RinellaWasHere
24. Wasting Time
I had a psychology teacher two semesters ago that was just terrible. On the first day of class, she told everyone she didn't like teaching, so we shouldn't expect any guidance from her.
She didn't tell us what to go over, what our homework was when a test was coming up, or if we were on the right track. This was a class that was 2 hours long, too, and all she did was constantly fold her scarf the whole time.
She also dressed really weirdly. She wore cowgirl boots with small shorts that were pulled up so high. She also wore the same striped shirt every day, and she had a hair bun on the front of her head like a unicorn horn. I lasted as long as I could, but I ended up dropping out of that class.
spidersting
25. Cruel Times
I had this jerk 8th-grade science teacher. He had a problem with me, but heck if I knew what it was. I just sat in the back and kept quiet.
He would call me out for things I didn't do. He called on me for questions constantly, but as fat and shy as I was, I had never raised my hand.
Sounds like he had high expectations for me, right? Heck no, he just hated me for some reason. I tried to get on the science challenges team one year, and he told me I wasn't smart enough.
He might have been right, but still. Screw that guy. One time, he asked me in front of the class if I could scratch my dandruff onto a slide so he could show what the cells would look like on the overhead/microscope gadget.
thefeepler
26. The Mathematician
College mathematics professor, my junior year. He was an adjunct faculty hired to teach this one class. Why the University needed to hire adjunct faculty to teach the final required class in a three-year sequence was a mystery to us.
Still, this guy walked in on day one to a systems theory class loaded with juniors and seniors and just took off. I don't think anyone told him what curricula we had taken or the course's purpose, but it seemed completely disconnected from everything we had done up to that point.
It was a required class; no one could drop it. He asked for homework to be submitted but never did anything meaningful with it.
I submitted a 5-page proof to him that got back the sole comment, "Not quite." He had no office, so he had no office hours. He came onto campus, taught the class, and left.
The final exam was the nightmare everyone had; you looked at the questions and wondered if you were in the right classroom. I looked around the room at the 30-minute mark, and there were people looking out the window as if they were afraid to be the first to hand the final in.
None of us passed. We asked to meet him to discuss the grades, and a friend of mine got a glimpse at the grading sheet. He had failed the majority of the class.
Graduating seniors were receiving grades that would require them to repeat a semester. When my friend saw this, he blurted the question, "Do you curve?" The professor's answer left us all slack-jawed, "I am a mathematician, not a psychologist."
gjallard
27. The Biggest Bully
My first-grade teacher was possibly one of the vilest, evil beings I’ve ever met on the face of the planet and one that if I ever saw again, I would spit in her face.
At one point, we had one of those projects where you raise Monarch Butterflies and release them when they finish their transition from caterpillar to butterfly. Each kid was put into groups of three, and we made these little butterfly jars to keep them in.
At one point in the process, jars worth of them died, and she told the class that I had poisoned them, and I was to blame; them being kids they believed her 100%.
Another instance was during Valentine’s Day when she told the class to throw away all the Valentine’s cards for me, which they did. That’s all there is to this part of the story.
Another time, I was being bullied by a kid from another class. I told her that because I felt I didn't have anywhere else to turn to, at which she replied I deserved it and walked off.
Eventually, things worsened until a fight broke out between him and me; when the principal got involved, she supported the offender and told the principal I was the bully.
The biggest one was early in the day. We were going over the nine planets (Pluto was still a planet at this time), and I was having trouble figuring it out, so she decided I deserved supplementary lessons after school.
I stayed for 3 hours after as she yelled and demeaned me, called me retarded and stupid, and told me how I would never amount to anything. Years later, I learned that my cousin also had her and that she still works at the school I once went to so many years ago.
Meaterz
28. Choosing People
Social Science teacher. She was incredibly biased towards the girls in class, giving them higher grades than the guys (I'm not trying to sound sexist here, but that's how it actually went).
There was a poster made once, and the top 10 (meaning the only ones with a perfect score) were nine girls and one guy (her favorite).
I'm not trying to berate my classmates, but one of my guy classmates' posters was really good, even better than most of the girls. Maybe she didn't notice him since he's pretty quiet, though.
Per section, there was one guy she liked and one girl she hated. It was incredibly weird. If that girl didn't get an answer right, the teacher would torment her. If that guy didn't do a requirement, she would allow him to pass it the next day.
I think she probably hated me as well. I got pretty demotivated to do anything in this class, so all I did was sleep, not do homework, and take tests. To be honest I think I only passed because I am good friends with her favorite guy.
Thi3rd
29. Unlucky Student
Sixth grade teacher. She often ridiculed a boy for not knowing how to do a math problem (her face would turn red, and you could see how frustrated she was whenever she did one-on-one with him).
Also, she showed favoritism. She always talked about her personal life; she punished a girl for only wearing tank tops to school, even during the winter time (looking back, I realized that the girl was a bit poor), and she was a complete witch.
Also, in college, English TA gave all the guys higher grades. He gave me a D for the semester but later emailed me back, saying, "Well, I don't want you to retake the class, so I'm giving you a C." After that English course, I received an A in all of my English college courses.
erriuga
30. Hunt For The Key
My own worst teacher story. It's not that bad, to be honest, but it's the worst I've had. I have always had a problem with my nose. I used to get very bad and very frequent nosebleeds when I was younger, but it settled out a little more as I aged. I know how to handle it well and fast.
I was in the form (the first 15 minutes of the day is spent there), and a nosebleed occurred. No big problem. I can just go clean myself up in the bathroom. But I needed the key without making a scene. So I asked my form tutor.
"Miss, can I get the key, please?" "Ew, no. I don't want to get blood on my keys. Go, someone will let you in." (By this time, blood was all over my face and my hands). So I went, dripping blood along the corridor floor.
I reached the toilet, and it was locked as usual. I looked about for someone to open the door for me. I was surrounded by classroom doors with windows, so I was probably very visible to other students.
I walked up to a door and tried to subtly get the teacher's attention. Didn't work. I had to knock with my bloody hands, which alerted the entire class to my situation. The teacher came to open the door for me.
I didn't think it was too bad, but my teacher was unaware of my nose situation, so she didn't know I could handle it or the intensity of the bleeding.
I went home at the end of the day and told my mother. It took a lot of my power to stop my mother from flipping out to my school. There are worse stories, but this is my worst.
[deleted]
31. Locking Knowledge Box
Had a chemistry teacher last year who would berate students and mock them in front of the class if they got a poor grade on a test or were struggling to understand a concept.
Sometimes, she'd get into conversations with students where she'd make it very clear that she had very little desire to teach.
She only decided to go into teaching after university when she couldn't find anything better to do.
It's fair enough to call people out if they're slacking for no good reason, but bringing some kids to the point of tears because they're finding the work difficult is out of line.
Iphigenia
32. No Ice Cream For You
The class was going to have an ice cream party IF all of the students got their timetables right. I missed two because I had a hard time memorizing information.
In fact, many years later, it was found that I had a math disability. Anyhow, she didn't say anything. Our party was scheduled, and my mom sent in toppings with me to school the day of.
Just before the party started, she came over and told me I had missed a few of them and that I needed to sit alone in the library during the party.
She knew that my mom was sending in toppings and demanded them. I was resistant, so she had to pull my book bag from me to get them out.
So I sat alone for about 45 minutes or so in the library while all of my classmates ate ice cream using the toppings my mom provided, no less.
Thirty-five years later, I am STILL angry over it, and now that I have kids, I couldn't imagine them having to go through that. Honestly, it made me hate math for the rest of my life. And now, at over 40, I still don't know all of my tables.... and I even graduated college.
TheOrionNebula
33. Hush, Please
Not me, but my wife had a maths teacher who was the worst. She would tell the class to be quiet, saying, "I'm not starting the lesson until everyone's silent."
Five minutes of shushing later, most of the class would be silent, but she still wouldn't start teaching, so people would start talking again. This went on for most of every lesson for the entire year.
When she did get around to doing anything, it was just "Turn to page whatever and do the questions.” My wife and her whole maths class had to sit in double maths classes the following year to make up the lost ground.
strawberry_wang
34. Two Nightmares
Grade 10 math teacher. Eastern European guy with a heavy accent that was hard to understand. That alone wasn't bad, except when you asked him to repeat something or for clarification, he'd criticize you and call you stupid.
At the end of the year, I failed my exam, and he said, "I will pass you if you leave my class and never come back again." I never agreed to something so quickly.
Oh, and my grade 10 French teacher. She had breakdowns at the end of every year, and I am not exaggerating. We did crap all in class until she had her breakdown, then we had a sub who desperately tried to teach us enough to help us pass the exam.
We were graded on a curve to make up for our lack of education all year. I remember playing my DS in her class every day. I didn't need to hide it or anything.
She didn't give a crap. It's a shame. I actually enjoyed French as a subject up until that point, after which I was too far behind to continue.
MentallyPsycho
35. The Hater
I had this teacher for Algebra 2; she was hell’s love child. I was one of the few people in her class who actually paid attention and tried, but I guess she didn’t like that.
Whenever I asked her for help, she would give me the dirtiest looks and refused to help me. I think the tree topper of it all was that she EMAILED my mom telling her that I suck in her class, and she thinks I’m copying off the person next to me.
I had a D in her class, and the guy next to me had an A. Don’t you think I would have gotten a better grade if I copied off the person next to me? I THINK SO! One of the worst teachers and people I have ever met. 10/10 would not recommend.
WelchsFruitSnack123
36. Past Mistake
Mrs Brown. I had her in year 3 (aged 7-8); my god, she did not like me. I had been a bit of a teacher’s pet throughout my earlier years, so I was quite taken aback when this lady didn’t like me.
No matter what I did, I was finding myself in trouble. The slightest whisper to my friend, I would be in trouble, while others around me would get away with having open conversations with their tables.
My work was never good enough. She even put me on an IEP (that’s the kind of program you mostly use for pupils with additional needs).
My following teacher, Mrs Harris, was lovely. Openly told me she had no idea why I had been put on an IEP in the first place, and I felt myself getting back on track.
By the end of the year, I somehow found myself wondering if maybe I’d been the one in the wrong with Mrs. Brown - she had been the grown-up after all, so there was always a good chance it had been my fault we hadn’t gotten along.
But after Mrs. Harris, I had Mrs. Brown again and realized that no, no, it was her problem after all. I found out later that I’d met Mrs. Brown shortly before I’d started school and had had a tantrum in her presence.
I guess she’d just decided I was a naughty child, and it had become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now that I’m a teacher myself, I can understand that the way she acted was extremely inappropriate, and you never use an IEP as a form of punishment.
Funnily enough, her husband taught PE in the secondary school I went to, and he had a school-wide reputation for being a jerk, too, so I guess it was just their thing.
I try to remember Mrs. Brown when I’m teaching and make sure my pupils know that every day is a fresh start and any misbehaviors from yesterday won’t affect the way they’re treated today.
WelshDionysus
37. Mind Restrictions
My high school physics teacher was the worst. I loved maths, physics, and chemistry in primary school, and I was quite good at those. But that witch in my high school only accepted the very exact solution to any problem that she had in mind.
When asked to solve any exercise or answer questions, I would be ridiculed and given a lousy grade if I dared to think about the problem and give my own solution.
If they were two perfectly good solutions, I would be screwed if I used the wrong one. It was like writing 'B + A' instead of 'A + B' was enough to fail.
The result was I barely passed. I couldn't make myself learn this by just memorizing things exactly. Using any interesting knowledge sources was pointless.
I hardly passed the physics course there and was not able to pass the entrance exam to the university well enough. I ended up graduating with something other than what I wanted. I hate that witch.
spacegardener
38. No Cares Given
My 8th grade pre-algebra teacher (I forget his name now, but I think it started with an L). Every other word out of his mouth was 'k (once, I counted. Something like 56 'k's in the span of 30 minutes).
He would lecture for 30 minutes, and then we had to work on the homework for the rest of the class. He would ask if you took notes if you had a question about a problem.
If you said yes: "Go look at your notes." If you said no: "You should have taken notes." Literally no help at all. I have dyscalculia.
They didn't know that at the time, mainly because the school I went to didn't believe in learning disabilities. To them, I wasn't trying hard enough or just being difficult. I also cannot listen and write at the same time.
To this day, I can't. I never took notes but still passed except in math because I absorbed through listening. On top of this, after his lecture, he would sit down and turn on the radio very loudly to an oldies station that played doo-wop.
Not that it's terrible music, but when you're trying to figure out what the heck you are doing, hearing supersonic "wooooOOOOOOOooooooaaaaaahhhh"s is REALLY distracting. Without a doubt- he was at the top of my list of terrible teachers.
[deleted]
39. Embarrassment And Mockery
My mathematics teacher in 5th and 6th grade. He was famous for always singling people (mostly me) out and just embarrassing them in front of the class.
I remember little me was so scared of this guy targeting me that I couldn't concentrate on the subject matter since I was completely focused on not looking up and appearing inconspicuous, which led to me having very bad grades and becoming a target for this guy.
I just sat there for an hour, totally paralyzed and not moving. One time, he called me to the board to do an equation. It was not hard, it was just some simple multiplication, but I was so scared that I could neither think nor move.
He turned to the class and asked them to look inside the trash can to "find where he threw his brain." He then made everyone look inside it and search for it.
The class had a good time making fun of me and cracking jokes. I didn't talk for the rest of the day. I changed schools after 8th grade and got a nicer class, where I made many good friends and gained some self-esteem.
cheesebetweenmytoes
40. Cheating Teacher
My 4th-grade math teacher hands down was a monster. She hated me from day one, and I still don't understand why. Over the course of the school year, she made me feel like I was too stupid to learn math.
One memorable incident: We had all taken a standardized test, and she wanted us to know our grades immediately, so she had us copy our answers onto a scantron form (the "real" test was to be sent off-campus for grading and would take a few days).
My grade came back really low. She then divided the room in half and had the kids who made good grades sit on one side, and the rest of us sit on the other side.
She gave the "good" kids cookies and sodas and let them goof off while the rest of us had to do worksheets. When we got the real grades back, mine was one of the highest in the class. I felt cheated.
lost40s
41. Flying Homework
Geology teacher in primary school. I still have various forms of nightmares today and am angry writing this. I’ve never shared it with anyone. I still don't know why she threw away my homework right from the whole class.
For context, she checks homework at her desk and calls one student after another. I brought my homework to her when it was my turn.
She took it and flung it across the classroom to the door. Not knowing what happened and perhaps naive and confused, I picked it up and handed it to her again. She threw it away again and yelled at me not to pick it up. I cried for the whole day.
LordSynister
42. Worst Alternative
In fourth grade, one of my teachers went on maternity leave, so we had a long-term sub for basically the entire second semester. Her name was Mrs. Graff, and she was not a great teacher.
She would pick on certain students and would be very nice to others. She would get mad at students for the smallest things, like drawing things incorrectly.
It got to the point where we would make a list of all the times she was bullying kids per day. We called it the "Graff Graph."
I'm glad I only had to deal with her for half a year because when I went to 5th grade, she became a full-time 4th-grade teacher.
cheesepancakes14
43. Bad Personality
I had a teacher who disliked me from the first day of secondary school for no apparent reason. Just immediately took a disliking to me.
I never gave her any issues and always got good grades, but she was a witch to me the whole time I was in school. For my final report card, she wrote that all I wanted to do was play with computers.
Every other teacher wrote in praise of how mature I was. A few years after I left school, I ended up being friends with some of my former teachers, and they told me privately that they couldn't stand her either. So, she was a Karen before being a Karen was a thing.
zerbey
44. Easy Exam
Mrs. Brown, the vengeful, diminutive viper of a Spanish teacher who pushed me until I got myself expelled in my Sophomore year.
Some background- I test incredibly well. My information retention and recall skills (among the few I possess, I'm pretty much an idiot in every other way) make testing ludicrously easy.
I finished her midterm exam in 20 minutes, asked to go the bathroom, and never came back. Why would I sit there for another hour and ten minutes? I'd be nothing but a huge distraction.
She called me before school the next day gloating about how because I left, I'd be receiving a zero grade- she laughed about it. She was so happy to share this news with me.
She was waiting for me at school by the exam room assignment board, not to drag me into the admins so we could work this out, but rather to gloat some more.
Something she said negated what little anger management skills I possessed; I ended up inches from her face, telling her that she'd grade the exam even if I had to end her to do it. Well, that was my last day at the school.
eaglesnd
45. Doctor Villain
Dr. Devendorf. Doesn't he sound like a cliche villain? He taught physics, which was a graduation requirement at this college prep school.
So he got a lot of students who weren't good at science (the kids who took AP or Honors Physics) but who did care about learning. We just weren't very good at the subject.
Anyway, he was awful at teaching. His lectures were incoherent and frequently veered off-topic (politics to his ex-wife). He was an incredibly difficult grader. Lab reports had to be exactly as he wanted them.
Did you forget to bold your heading? 10% off. But that was lab reports. Quizzes had to be exact, and he would just mark them wrong without correcting them and would berate you for being stupid if you asked him to explain.
If you asked a question during a lecture, he'd berate you. I was really lucky that I had friends in that class, so we basically just formed a study group and taught ourselves the material.
We also did lab reports in Google Docs so we could all check them, etc. I think it was a number of complaints that had been building over the years, but our year was the one that admin finally forced him to retire. So no other kids have to deal with him!
baby_yaga