09/09/2006: SNT: Back To School Survey…
Busy busy busy on Halloween Halloween Halloween, so I'll keep this SNT intro quick, and introduce a survey:
It's back to school time. Reflect on some of the worst teachers you ever had.
Discussion Thread: 113 comments
mr. perlowitz… he hated when we would eat something in the halls… he would yell.. and take the food away and just b plain old nasty. he had issues. 
and i never have said it so… first post!
Posted by
jessica @ 09/09/2006 2:47 PM EDT
I always had pretty decent teachers, but there was this one despised substitute, Ms. Nettles. She's dead by now, assumingly, because she was older than dirt 15 years ago. All the kids hated her guts. We couldn't talk EVER, and I remember one time, after she sub-ed and our teacher came back, Nettles had eaten every piece of candy in the teacher's glass jar on her desk, leaving only a letter 'B' shaped eraser (which for some reason, was in the candy jar). Gluttonous, silence-loving bitch.
Posted by
ColonelCatsup @ 09/09/2006 2:53 PM EDT
Mrs.Baron biology would give questions no one in class could answer and when I did find the answer in my ma's nursing books thought I cheated. Also hated gum had a huge mountain of gum she took from kids over 10 years, smelled of raid
Posted by
Dan @ 09/09/2006 3:00 PM EDT
Is it legal for me to post on SNT when it's really only noon here? My worst was Mrs. Spears (even her name sounds evil). She was a heinous bitch, and she switched years with me…so that i had her in 4th grade, and then again for English in 5th grade. I still shudder at the memory of her, and that was what, 15 years ago?
Posted by
Rosella (aka Joey) @ 09/09/2006 3:03 PM EDT
I have plenty of horrible teacher stories… let's see.
I was smarter than my 3rd grade teacher. Y'know… When I was in third grade. (Not more educated, obviously. But smarter.) She was a tyrant and she used my mold allergy to her advantage.
9th grade English student teacher– Mrs. Mills. We called her "The Mill." She was a 4'8" ball. She tried to fail me because I didn't agree with her about… something. Oh! The draft. We had to write a paper about the draft possibly being reinstated, and I was against it. After she left my very reasonable B was reinstated… Also she couldn't pronounce the word "Huzzah!"
11th grade physics– Mr. Leach. Actually, he was an okay guy. He was a horrible teacher though. He'd repeat himself daily about some things, leave other things out, and he had a really annoying voice and bad handwriting. If I could redo that class I'd have started a black market for essays, tests (he did makeups with the same exact questions) and lab reports. I would've been rich, and everyone would've gotten A's. Actually, I've never harbored so much dislike for someone who gave me an A+ before…
Posted by
Katherine @ 09/09/2006 3:14 PM EDT
My third grade teacher hated me so much that she threw a pen at me and, later, a stapler. I mean, she actually threw these things directly at my head, in front of everyone. No one could ever figure out what I did to make her hate me so much. Those two incidents were the worst out of many things she did. Maybe she thought I was the devil reborn, or something.
I also had a piano teacher who slapped me in the face in front of the whole class, because I made some kind of smartass comment (although whatever it was, it wasn't THAT bad).
I was a pretty good student for both of these teachers. Interestingly, I had a teacher some years later for whom I was an absolute hellion, and she loved me!
Posted by
Martha @ 09/09/2006 3:26 PM EDT
Mr. Gatewood. a substitute i had throughout middle and high school. although he was pretty funny, he threw erases and change when you didn't answer questions right.
and mrs. pittman who i had for statistics my 2nd semester of college. i blame her as my sole reason for dropping out of school. aside from being completely hard headed and arrogant she only lectured while screaming.
Posted by
brianfax @ 09/09/2006 3:27 PM EDT
One of my worst teachers was my art teacher from senior year. She refused to take into account the effort and amount of time we put into our pieces… She just graded them based upon whether she liked them or not. She would also change/steal our work and display it at art exhibitions without asking — or even telling — us first.
Click on my name for a sweet surprise, BTW. 
"Click on my name for a sweet surprise, BTW. "
i posted a picture of the new count chocula in my blog three days ago. i really dont like it. it look's like he ran into a wall.
I remember our principle once subbed for our teacher and we were doing something on Ancient Egypt, so he asked the class what modern-day structures would last as long as the great pyramids. I raised my hand, said, "The Empire State building…?" and he said, "lol, trick question, there is no such structure, Egyptians rule, F for the day."
Or something like that. Asshat. Forth graders aren't suppodes to know about retorical questions.
Posted by
Kevin M @ 09/09/2006 3:43 PM EDT
Mrs Gunson - what a bitch! She clipped me round me ear for accidentally ripping a piece of paper, and managed to give another kid a black eye by throwing a board eraser at him. The days when you could assault kids and get away with it!
Had a teacher in middle school that wasn't a horrible person, she was just clueless. So, of course everyone tried to get away with as much as possible. I pulled a full bookshelf over on myself (in the middle of one of her 'lectures')and blamed a gravitational shift. She wasn't sure what to do about it, so nothing ever came of it.
Posted by
rev @ 09/09/2006 4:09 PM EDT
I was homeschooled. :/
Posted by
Somethin' Funny @ 09/09/2006 4:20 PM EDT
I was in the last year before retirement for my fourth grade teacher, so I didn't really learn jack ess that year. He just did NOT care any more, though he continued on as a substitute in town afterwards. Actually most of the very worst teachers I've had have been subs, but fortunately that's only a temporary situation. I also disliked my first grade teacher, though now I can only recall one weird incident. She was really frail and ancient, and one February she was telling the class about Martin Luther King Jr., and to explain his accomplishments she told everyone, "If it wasn't for Martin Luther King, Squee couldn't be here in the class with the rest of us". Now, I'm not African-American; I'm half Chicano and pretty much look it, I think. To this day I've never figured out if she was confused, or if I was just the most obvious person of color in class or what, but it was kind of a shitty way to single out a six year old from every other kid in the room.
There have been boring teachers, teachers who didn't wear deoderant, that sort of thing. I can't pick a specific teacher, but I can pick a category of teachers I hate the most.
Gym teachers who are too fat and out of shape to do the things they're making you do. When I was little I just wondered how they got to be gym teachers in the first place; by junior high, I was pissed off that they got paid for anything. My seventh grade gym teacher looked like Mimi from the Drew Carey show, and I couldn't take it.
Halloween fun at the mall, just for atmosfear.
Ms. Sommer in 5th grade used to give me holy hell about my handwriting. Now, I know it's bad, but I'd slave away at some essay, and she wouldn't take it unless I wrote it neater. Not because she couldn't read it, but because she felt it was her obligation to teach me better handwriting… except she didn't TEACH me better handwriting, she just said "do it again." She also assigned an MLK project around his birthday that year- we had to make some kind of scroll with events from his life. She had me benched for both recesses that day (it was in California where the eating area was outside so the teachers could "bench" you during recess by making you sit there and what the other kids play). I was supposed to finish it, but she kept telling me I needed to do more. She wouldn't give any other guidance than that. "No, you need MORE." She also suggested that I might have neurological problems. The only teacher my mother ever had an argument with. None of the other parents liked that teacher either.
Posted by
X @ 09/09/2006 5:08 PM EDT
I have had some teachers that I really didn't care for either, but I think you may want to be careful about posting names on the internet. I myself am a teacher, and one thing I have learned is that many of these people are good people, but not that great at their jobs.
Although I am not the most competent teacher myself, it still frustrates me how some students are impossible to please. I have made my own mistakes, but have done my best to correct them and become a more effective teacher.
I am not defending a teacher that throws objects at students, but before you hold an endless grudge against a former teacher (and post it for all to see), remember they are still people. Besides, did you do your best to ensure that they were able to teach you as much as they could? Education is not the sole responsibility of the teacher. Students have to be willing to involve themselves as well.
I will now step off my podium and let you commence with the talk back.
Posted by
Champ Burgundy @ 09/09/2006 5:21 PM EDT
definitely not my worst, but the first that comes to mind is my 7th grade science teacher who lost a piece to one of her microscopes once. she freaked out, yelling, crying, accused everyone of stealing it, threatened to cancel our field trip. she found the piece later that day…in the microscope. and was kind enough to not bother apologizing.
Posted by
dylan @ 09/09/2006 5:24 PM EDT
My 7th grade social studies teacher was a diehard communist. Me being a diehard capitalist meant that of course we wouldn't get along, but she was the one grading my papers… >:( I would literally get C's for expressing pro-capitalist sentiments.
My 8th grade english teacher just hated me for some reason. She gave me A's on every paper and assignment that I wrote then when it came time to assign semester grades she gave me a B and made up some stupid reason why when I asked about it. She also didn't understand that 'creative writing' implies, well, *creativity.* We had an exact, and I mean *exact* form and process we needed to follow when writing anything fiction, else we'd get really horrible grades and also get berrated in front of everybody for not following 'the rules.'
But the honor of worst teacher ever goes to a guy I (thankfully) never got. I'd heard the horror stories, and the only experience of seeing him teach was walking past the lecture hall where his class was to see him pacing back and forth *on top of his desk* while screaming to his students about how stupid they were. What a jerk.
Posted by
Crow T. Robot @ 09/09/2006 5:36 PM EDT
There's just no way I could pinpoint any over the others. So many incompetent ones. It'd be easier to make a list of the teachers I had that didn't suck. I'm not going to do that either because I'd forget one and feel bad about it later.
Posted by
dohopoki @ 09/09/2006 5:45 PM EDT
" posted a picture of the new count chocula in my blog three days ago."
That's cool. I just wanted people to see the complete set.
Posted by
Hey I'm Jeff @ 09/09/2006 5:51 PM EDT
I'll go with two. My high school physics teacher, who was deemed incompetant a year after I had her. She treated us like Kindergartners and made us do assigments accordingly. We didn't complain because well it was an easy B. The rest of my cohort, being the nerds they are complained the next year and actually learned something from the new teacher. Like I care. I took it in college, its all good.
And then, the worst of all. This guy said he came all the way from California just to teach. And I was like, well you chose unwisely, pack it up and go home. He was teaching Elem. Statistics and I almost took over the class on several occasions. If I hadn't had been a freshman at the time I would have, I still thought I should afford him some respect. So I just told him what he did wrong at the end of every class. He was appreciative in speech, but I'm sure he hated my guts. Not my fault. He went on to unemployment the following semester and I went on to publishing an article on Equivalency Testing with some of my professors.
"Who's your daddy now, bitch?!?!!"
Posted by
Knegative @ 09/09/2006 6:14 PM EDT
When I was entering 10th grade, my family moved from Minneapolis to bumfucknowhere in Washington state. I had always done pretty well in school and the school I was starting out there did not have the AP type program that I was in before. So, the classes for my grade I had pretty much already taken. So, to fill my schedule I took Horticulture. Everyone told me the easiest way to get an A was to sit up front and flirt with the teacher. (A 60 year old good old boy type) When I (and my sister) went to that class on the first day of school, we noticed there were only 2 other girls in the class and they were indeed up front. Thinking we were wise, we sat in the back. He never called either of us by our names the entire semester, we were "Miss Priss" and I ended up with a D- in the class. Now you have to know this was one of those classes where we never did jack, and learned nothing. Our assingments were things like, "Go outside and pick some weeds." I was so furious, but being only 15 I had no idea how I could fight it. All through highschool I got mostly A's with some B's. But because of that D- I did not graduate with honors and my GPA was off. I am getting angry thinking about it. I need some wine now…
Posted by
kb @ 09/09/2006 6:15 PM EDT
Mrs. Dissauer, a substitute teacher I had in elementary school and middle school. She almost always had a sour look on her face, and was genuinely unpleasant to everyone. We called her Mrs. Dinosauer because she was a huge fat bitch.
teacher i hate the most is one i have now. can i make it through this semester? she's straight up RETARDED.
Posted by
rusty @ 09/09/2006 6:24 PM EDT
Way back in the dinosaur days of my youth, as far back as jr high, we had what had to be THE worst PE teacher that little country school ever hired. His idea of class was to take us outside, point down the road, and make us run to the mile corner and back. I'm no Jim Thorpe, but no exceptions for the asthmatic or chubby. Me and by best bud would trudge to about somewhere past 1/4 to 1/2 mile until the faster of the basketball team would be on the return trip, then we'd slog back. Now, the school was surrounded on three sides by farmland, and one day, there was a great, ginormous, wind storm a-blowin'. The chump coach wanted us to do the usual anyway. Protests were made, and dismissed. Off we went, trudge, trudge, trudge…. All of us, to a man, stopped at the wall of dirt blowin across the road. "Us? There? In that?" Under duress of flunkitude, we all entered. Kind of like stepping into the Stargate. Now the fun began. As anyone with experience in dry, dry sand/dust storms can attest, the main side effect is static in the air. We had to slowly inch along the side of the road, only able to keep track of each other by holding our arms out in front and wait for the shock on contact. We barely made it out the other side when the fastest came by. Ah, crap. Back in the void. "Buddy?" "Yeah, king?" "What if short guy got blown away in this?" "ha-ha!" zap! "That you?" "Yeah!" Found out later that Short guy stopped by the side of the road to take a leak, and was blown off-balance by the gale, and stumbled into a barb-wire fence! We all went in all crusty and gritty. The ball team had access to showers, and the rest of us just sifted into our next classes. Made quite the impression. The coach got the gate not too long after. Turned out he had no training or certification of any kind. He conned his way into the job. One of the many, many reasons I hated school.
Posted by
kingklash @ 09/09/2006 6:24 PM EDT
3rd Grade 1996- Ms.Garcia, I didn't know to call her a bitch at the time, but she was the first teacher I despised with all my little heart. Granted I had conduct issues to say the least, but any 8-year old with some charisma is going to have some conflicts.
She had an uncanny habit of sending me out of the classroom during little class events or parties. I deeply resented this. She had been reading James and The Giant Peach for the past couple weeks to the class and had a day planned out to watch the movie. Seeing as I owned the movie, on movie day I brought it for all the class to see. Shortly after taking attendance, she sent me out of the room to stay in another teacher's class to just sit by myself basically. I remeber to this day looking in my backpack at the movie and thinking in my head "If I can't watch it, no one will". Needless to say they were watching "Matilda" that day.
Posted by
maqzun @ 09/09/2006 6:35 PM EDT
2nd grade- Mrs. Salmon, she was a Chinese immigrant who spoke horrible English, and yet she taught us English. That and she yelled at us and occasionally insulted us.
6th grade- Dr. Wilcox, we had to call him Dr. Wilcox, not Mr. or else he would get really pissy. I had a group project; we had to create a mobile. My partner and I turned it in a day late, the good doctor told us to put it on his microwave, all the teachers in my middle school had microwaves. We followed his instruction and at the end of the year we were told that we had never turned in that project. He said we could look for it if we really wanted to but we wouldn’t find it. The first place I looked was the microwave. There it was, under a few papers. I don’t think he gave us credit, seeing as, to him, it was a few months late.
6th grade- Ms. Davis was some new, snotty English/math teacher who gave out tons of work and was, to put it simply, a total bitch. If she even suspected you of wrong doing you got in trouble. I hate her.
7th grade- Mrs. Spencer, she was very pleasant most of the time, but deep down she was a real fucker. One time she assigned some project where we had to make a diorama of a roller coaster and come up with a description. No one’s description was good enough. She sent my group down to the library to re type ours. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong so we went back to class. She was pacing back and forth, and in an angry tone she was telling the class how disappointed she was, one kid was even crying. Now, for some reason, if the entire class does it wrong you would think that there was something wrong in the directions given. Nope, apparently we were all just stupid.
Oh, and another thing about Mrs. Salmon. One time we had a sub, and the next day, when Salmon returned she told us that the sub had left a list of all the kids who had misbehaved. During recess, if we had done something, we were to stay and tell her what we had done, if we didn’t our punishment would be even worse. Needless to say I was scared shitless. I hadn’t done anything, but just in case I stayed. About half the class had stayed in. we all sat around her chair, where she normally read us books, and one by one said what we had done. When it was my turn I told I wasn’t sure if I had done anything. She basically asked me if I hadn’t done anything why the hell was I in there. I went to recess, later she bragged to a group of mothers who volunteered in the library about it. The list was actually her grocery list. I know this because my mother was in the group of volunteers.
I'm younger than most of you (18 since August 26), so I can never really join in to most of the conversations. But I do remember one subsitute I had, must have been fourth grade, I'm not sure, named Mrs. Grossman (and that was the PERFECT name for her, too). She still believed in good old-fashioned child beating, and I can still remember the first day we had her. She gave us this big lecture on how the Colonials used to punish their kids in school by whacking their hand with a yardstick 
. Then I believe she actually took some kid up to the table and demonstrated it. Either that or she did it on herself, but I still remember the sound. Eesh. :O
I had some bad teachers in middle school but it's hard to say now that I am an adult (and a teacher) of whose fault it really was. I never had any really mean teachers, just sorry or apathetic. I remember nothing from my high school U.S. History teacher except for crossword puzzles and now I teach that subject, so go figure.
Click my name for a website that is VERY RELEVANT to tonight's discussion. May God have mercy on my soul for what I have unleashed.
Mrs. G. Moreau, my 7th grade English teacher. That woman was evil. And spiteful, to boot. She once got mad at me after I forgot my vocab definitions at home, and was able to remember the definition she'd called on me to read aloud. She was mad at me not because I forgot my work, but because I was able to provide a correct answer and she couldn't ridicule my stupidity for a change.
Our school had a stupid Valentine's Day event where you could buy plastic roses in various hues to send to friends, crushes, etc. Red for I love you, pink for a I like you, yellow for let's be friends, and green for I hate you. My evil English teacher got TWO DOZEN GREEN ROSES. Had I not seen them myself, I wouldn't have believed it. She then proceeded to make all of her classes various levels of hell as payback for us letting her know how we felt.
I had one teacher in Highschool….Richard kelly of Point Boro Highschool, point plesant NJ. I was a tad overweight at the time, and picked on mercilessly by the students…to make matters worse….this asshole fuckhead cocksuck teacher: Told the class in the period after mine, that Amanda Davis smelled so bad that i had to throw her out the window, but being so fat she couldn't fit out. You could'nt sue him b/c of Tenure or some untouchable clause that they make for pompous fuck head cocks.
Posted by
mandy_Reeves @ 09/09/2006 8:40 PM EDT
Sorry for the obscenity fest..but i figured that warranted somthing
Posted by
mandy_Reeves @ 09/09/2006 8:43 PM EDT
7th grade English teacher. One day he said absolutely no talking. The only problem was the kid next to me was dumb as a box of rocks and he kept bugging me for help on his essay and he was afraid to ask the foul-mood teacher. Feeling bad for him, I helped him out. Guess who was handed with a detention slip?
My dad flipped out and bitched him out. Never did have to serve that detention, but I never did get an apology either. The most he could ever do with the English language is teach 7th graders. I'm 24 and have already been published in some prestigious literary magazines AND been honored by the Academy of American Poets. Part of me always wanted to rub this in. Maybe I will when I get my first book published. =)
I noticed a lot of 7th grade teachers coming up. Is it something about that grade?
Jeff Mack, having had a terrible 7th grade myself and having taught one year of 7th grade as an adult, let me say, "Yes, there is something about that grade." It is one of those transitional years (3rd, 7th, 9th, and 12th) in one's school career.
3rd-Multiplication and division, cursive, etc. The game has changed.
7th-Social concerns come first but you are caught in a limbo of childhood and adolesence. Girls are maturing and dream of high school boys while 7th grade boys are as dopey as ever. All-stars in elementary school either stay all-stars OR (like me in a decision I will ALWAYS regret) decide that being a good student isn't worth the effort.
9th-Similar to 7th grade but on a grander scale. Juniors and seniors are going out, doing things they probably shouldn't. You are there but probably have to watch from the sidelines. It is also a time to "recreate" your image (Goth, prep, athlete, etc.)
12th-A "second childhood". You reflect on your school career. Mix of excitement and fear.
Overall, 7th and 9th are the worst because you can't control/understand what is happening to you.
Posted by
The Manimal @ 09/09/2006 9:07 PM EDT
Mandy - hopefully he'll get torn apart my wild animals or something. That sucks. I don't think you smell.
Manimal - the only school of mine available on that site was my junior high school, but at least I was able to rate the gym teacher who made me so angry with her being fat.
Jeff Mack - the gym teacher in question was 7th grade for me too. Junior high is a rough, rough time.
I've been reading this over, and it's kind of a downer. I want to say that I liked the small town I was in, just not that teacher. And also, I got Garfield and Friends vol. 1 today. Me and my son are enjoying popcorn and watching it now.
Posted by
kb @ 09/09/2006 9:13 PM EDT
Manimal brings up an awesome point. Sometimes the way we percieve teachers/professors is just that: perception and not reality. I've read some horrible reviews of professors who I am friends with and will defend til the grave, on Ratemyprofessor.com
You'll notice that my complaints had to do with competency. I've had teachers and professors who were outright evil, but knew what they were teaching and how to teach it. The college stats guy I mentioned was nice as can be, but he couldn't cut it.
What I can't stand is people ragging on professors only because they actually require them to WORK for their grade. College is the only commodity I know where we are willing to not get what we pay for. Granted, that's partly because some students (well bunches) have their tuition payed by their parents or the government. But I digress, very much.
Posted by
Knegative @ 09/09/2006 9:17 PM EDT
My 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Woods just did not like me, she used to make fun of me with the other students. I remember her and my Dad, getting in all out yelling fights after school because she was so mean to me.
I also have a bad teacher for grade 7 and 8, Mrs Evans. She taught my whole family, and for some reason she hated us all. She told me that I sat in the back of the classroom because I wasnt really part of the class just because I took a differnt Math and English class. She also never hid the fact that I did'nt do well in school, she would tell me I did terrible on a test, or I had the lowest mark in class, in front of the rest of my class. God she made me seem like an idiot. Yet, she loved all the kids that were bad asses. Her favorite was a boy who got busted for drinking and smoking up durring recess.
Posted by
IHAQ @ 09/09/2006 9:23 PM EDT
Man, a lot of these stories are really making me angry (squee, mandy, just about everybody else). I guess that everybody has a really terrible teacher at some point.
Most of my teachers were very good- I've had some incompetent ones in college, but before that there was only really one notable one.
6th Grade: Mrs Sargent. (I include her name because it fits.) I have three stories of note. (I must note- we split 6th grade between two teachers, so I only had her 50 % of the time- thank goodness.)
First: One time, she had us get in groups to write some kind of paper in the English part of class. When we were finished, she told us to read them to the class. (Key word: READ!) So of course, all of us read directly from the papers (we were 11, 12 years old and knew nothing different). She waits until after everyone has done this, and proceeds to tell us that because we did not look at the class as we read, we all failed. Grrr.
Second: In Geography, she was teaching us to learn countries on the map. On the first day that she was teaching this to my class, she tells me to go up to the board and tell her where Panama is. (The map was blank- only outlines of xountries.) Of course, I've never learned this, so I guess. (I was in the right area, but so off.) She starts yelling at me, telling me we went over this yesterday (!) and she already showed this to me and why can't this class pay attention, etc. She went over it with her class, not ours. That was when we all realized she was a little strange.
Third: In 6th grade we had a big "headlice" epidemic. See, it's key here that none of the students ever had it. Our "school nurse" had very poor vision, but nonetheless sent almost all the girls home for "headlice" when it was nonexistent. Every day that week I got sent home, after multiple treatments for nothing as well as a trip to the doctor, who told her I didn't have it. (She was terrible!) Anyway, my Mom decided to take me out of class for the next week or so because she was so angry, so I went to my classes to get my assignments. In MY class, everything went well- everyone was pleasant and disappointed to see me go. I got my assignments with no problems. I go to her class (long before class ever started, like half an hour), and she says to me "I can't, I have a CLASS." Really snotty-like. On top of that people were backing away from me like I had the plague. It wasn't ever what she said, just how she said it, like she was SO superior. (Which she was, being a teacher and all, but not like that.) I think this was the only time I ever cried in school, she upset me that much. And I got picked on a lot, believe me.
I also have to mention this one Professor in college that I've never had, but I know people who have. This one girl I met last semester got cancer a couple of years ago and was in his class at the time. She started treatment and was too sick to leave the house, so she decided to drop all her classes that semester. All her other instructors had no problems with this, but this particular Prof. made her physically go to campus to have him sign the form (about an hour's drive), when this was totally unnecessary. On top of this, he's a rather incompetent and mean-spirited instructor, as I generally hear.
I'm glad to get this off my chest!
Posted by
Rainbowfeet @ 09/09/2006 9:41 PM EDT
I had a teacher in college for Differential Equations that didn't speak a word of English. He was a very happy Indian man that had a smile on his face ata ll times–but I couldn't understand what the hell he was saying all semester.
Posted by
Chupacabra @ 09/09/2006 9:43 PM EDT
Wow, that was really long, sorry guys!
For the record, this was the only teacher I ever actively disliked. My school experience in general was really very good. Middle school (7th and 8th) in particular rocked.
Posted by
Rainbowfeet @ 09/09/2006 9:46 PM EDT
Oh God, two come to mind.
In 7th grade, I had Mr. Macri for Science. I never saw him do either of these two things, but there were rumors that he ate his boogers, and looked at Playboy magazines during class. 
He was a total asshole, too. He would yell at you for NO reason. One time I had to read a section out of the textbook, and I wasn't being loud enough, apparently. Well, first of all, the classroom wasn't normal, it was a theater seating style room, and I was on basically the opposite side of the room from him. He told me to speak louder… told me to speak louder, and told me AGAIN… One of my friends yelled out "She's doesn't HAVE a loud voice!" or something like that. lol But I was so pissed by that time, I just yelled the entire portion at the top of my lungs. I wanted to kick his ass.
In 10th grade, I had a teacher that was such an evil snippy bitch that gave the look of death 24/7… I forget her name, but a few years later, she got arrested for having a HANDGUN in her purse at school! She was a freak.
Posted by
Ryane @ 09/09/2006 9:50 PM EDT
Sorry, I forgot about Mrs. Crawford. We all swore she really was a demon. And she always wore these really gaudy drapey disgusting clothes, and lots of gold lame' (sorry I can't do the inflection :p) Me and two of my friends were outside at recess (this was 4th grade) and we were freezing our asses off, and it was almost time to go in, so, on the count of 3, we yelled out the name of the woman supervising all of us, because we wanted to go inside. We didn't realize we were standing right next to Mrs. Crawford's room at the time. She comes barreling out of the door, and makes us go in the room and stand there for about 10-15 minutes infront of the class, then apologize to them, for "interrupting". We were all late for the next class and we all wanted to kill her.
Another time, I was in her art class, and she was instructing us on how to put something together, and told us to put a dot of glue at each corner of the square of paper we had. Well, I was a rebel and put like, 6 or eight dots. SHE SPAZZED OUT! Looked down at me and said, "4 DOTS, LITTLE GIRL!"
I'm getting pissed off again just thinking about that. 
Posted by
Ryane @ 09/09/2006 10:06 PM EDT
Hmmm…Worst teachers?
Hmm…most of the teachers I've had recently have either been good or ok enough to not get a bad grade in my book, and the ones that were REALLY bad…I didn't have, but were always in the classroom next to ours and could easily hear him/her screaming at the students.
But I gotta contribute something to this, so I'll mention the philosophy teacher I had exactly at this time last year, who was THE Stereotype college professor: Old, Bland, drone voice, always wanting to leave/retire, teaching a bland subject early in the morning, and talks down to students, even if he is always not serious. The fact that this guy was my first professor of my first class of college ever really didn't help. Even though I did OK in his class, I'm glad I'm outta there!
Anyways, my myspace blog has recently caught on by wildfire, mostly because of my most recent post (the one labled "Straight Ballin'"), I've been getting loads more traffic than I was getting before!
I know this has nothing to do with anything, and I know nobody cares about this anymore, but I finally used the "magic phrase" at work yesterday.
When my co-worker mentioned having gone to computer school I said "Well, the market is so saturated with computer-people these days. There's no money in it anymore, and I mean I don't want to think about chicken while I'm eating Doritos!". She just laughed.
BTW after tomorrow I'll have completed my first work-week at my new job (dietary aide at a nursing home). Congratulate me.
I had a pretty awful US History teacher my first semester of college. This was in fall of '04 and we spent every class debating the election. People got heartless and personal with the debates and the teacher made no effort to moderate things so they stayed educational and mature, and it was so stressful I just about had a panic attack by the end of every class. She rarely taught any actual history, yet she tested us on it. I ended up dropping that class.
There was also my 9th grade geography teacher. He was one of those teachers who was also a coach and was really only in it for the coaching. For some ungodly reason he would make us read the sports page in class and record the stats and whatnot. When some of us (girls) complained, he told us we should learn to read the sports page so that we could read it to our husbands someday. I don't think I even need to comment on that.
But the worst teacher I can think of isn't a teacher I ever had, but one of the teachers where I work. She teaches pre-k students with disabilities. One year one of her students, who is autistic, was found wandering the school at 6pm because the teacher somehow managed not to put her on the bus OR to notice she was missing. She was noticed by someone who had happened to drive past the school.
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/09/2006 10:40 PM EDT
We had a teacher in Jr High called Mrs. Kelley, everyone hated her, when she laughed she snorted like a pig. I actually got my NickName "Joker" because of her. I used to pull pranks on her, She was convinced it was a kid named Duane. Anyway she drove a gremlin and on the last day of school I convinced the Football team to pick it up and put it in the schools hallway. It was great, the police were called and everything. The end result was a Tow Truck had to pull it out.
ahhh Good Times.
Posted by
Jester @ 09/09/2006 10:44 PM EDT
Back with my claws more terrifying than ever. Can't pinpoint an absolute worst- middle school math teacher who couldn't explain anything and was fired a year later? Most irritating was a college professor who had crazy coffee breath first thing in the morning: warning, don't sit on the the first row in an 8:00 class. Whooo!
BTW- just saw someone was in 3rd grade in 1996- HOLEE CRAP that's young. Do you remember half the stuff Matt talks about here? In 96 I was getting ready to graduate HIGH SCHOOL…dang brutha!
Posted by
Terror Claws Cole @ 09/09/2006 10:45 PM EDT
I forgot to mention my 9th and 12th grade English teacher, Miss Shoultz. She seriously had to weigh about 450, and was a hardcore bitch. She told us on the first day her "class rules". If you were late to class, she would single you out and stare at you for a minute or so with the scariest face you could imagine (the woman did not have a neck). She also made it a rule that we could not use spiral notebooks. She called the torn edges on spiral paper "squigglies" and would scream squigglies over and over again until the person who turned the paper in would take the paper back and cut said "squigglies" off of it. God I hated that class. I had the pleasure of having her twice. I think I learned a lot because I was honestly scared she would eat me if I didn't do my work correctly.
Posted by
mudogramx @ 09/09/2006 10:47 PM EDT
Sorry for the almost-double post, but I also thought I should point out that the "sports page" teacher also had nicknames for every student, and actually called roll by them. Some of them weren't very nice. Mine, for example, was Psycho And I had to answer to that when he called roll!
Terror Claws Cole: I'm almost that young too, I was in 3rd grade in 1995. I don't think it's that we're that young so much as you're not realizing that 1996 was a full ten years ago. I'm 21. That's young, but not exactly a baby or too young to remember any of the 80s :p
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/09/2006 10:51 PM EDT
First off I want to say my mom is a teacher but all teachers should know, there are many, many out there not qualified at all to be teaching and just total morons.
Such as this guy I had who was our health teacher/coach of the wrestling team. He was an ass. If any one did anything wrong he made the whole class write over and over a sentence such as "I will not talk aloud in class" or some crap like that. We're supposed to be learning, what the hell is that teaching us? It was an excuse for him to do nothing. Worst was when he became the sex ed teacher and was supposed to be teaching us and put the fear in us, nobody could laugh and was afraid to ask any questions that he could deem "dumb" or a joke. THe best is this man with two kids teaching sex ed reading the pamphlet "oh wow I didn't know that"
Posted by
Moore Roger @ 09/09/2006 10:56 PM EDT
I've generally had an okay history with teachers, but there are two that come to mind as being really mean-spirited.
One was from first grade. Back then, I was really into 101 Dalmatians, and I was a bit of a doodler. One day, I was scribbling little dalmatian drawings in my notebook when the Demon Teacher From Hell caught me. If there was one thing I dreaded about school as a kid, it was having adults yell at me. This bitch not only screamed at me, she also held me back from attending art class that day. Just for doodling. Fortunately, I was among a group of lucky kids who was chosen to be transferred to another instructor's class that year.
The other one was one of my seventh grade math teachers. She was a monster in every sense of the word. You know those Ring Wraiths from Lord of the Rings? Remember how they would fill places with a sense of dread whenever they came near? That kind of sums up what stepping into this woman's class was like. She was a mean-spirited witch who loved to scream at the top of her lungs and suck the joy out of people. On the day that I transferred out of that school, she and my mother got into a shouting match in the stairway near the classroom. It was one of the most awesome things I've witnessed in my life!
I can see where Manimal is coming from, though. I initally hated my other seventh grade math teacher, because he was really strict and would assign difficult work. Then, one day, he did something unusual: he gave us all a chance to submit written feedback about his teaching. On my little sheet of paper, I wrote how much I disliked him, but I made sure not to sound insulting or anything. After that day, he started to act nice to me for some reason. He never went any easier on me, but we developed a strange kind of respect for one another.
Oh ya mudogramx I had a teacher that would always complain about those "squigglies" likethose infernal things actually make a difference.
Posted by
Moore Roger @ 09/09/2006 10:57 PM EDT
I didn't answer the survey when I posted it because I was TOO BUSY. I still am, but here goes:
My 4th & 5th grade band teacher was a lunatic. Band was a bonus — we considered it a second lunch. But this teacher was absolutely insane about getting us to learn. When somebody wasn't progressing to his liking — even if they were trying — he'd throw a shit fit (and heavy items), screaming like a maniac before sending the offender to an empty room because he "couldn't look at them right now." He wasn't so much an asshole as he was just really intense, because when we played well, he was okay with life. But God, we were kids. We just wanted to bang on drums and rawk out. This is one of the only teachers I ever had nightmares about consistently.
In my first semester at college, I had this really brilliant stereotypical old professor guy as an English teacher. He ran the kind of class that required a decision on the very first day: Either do your work and do well, or slack off and fail miserably. There was no middle ground, and this being my first semester, I really applied myself and got an "A." The guy even pulled me aside to tell me how great I did when the semester was up. I felt great. I had "my class," and I knew I'd apply myself just as hard in my next English class, even with a new teacher. And I did. Problem was, it was some stupid ass spiritual just-got-her-degree girl with all sorts of terrible notions about writing. She'd give me Cs on stuff and write vague notes about the "style," while simultaneously bringing in plays her friends had written — awful plays — to show us how we should be writing. She was a pleasant woman, but I hated the fuck out of her. I wasn't very principled with anything regarding school, but here I intentionally kept getting Cs just to prove a point. Well, I guess there wasn't a "point" as much as there was "spite," but yeah.
When I went into the 5th grade, I, along with many friends, got what was assumed to be the "worst teacher." There were three fifth grade classes in my school. Two were taught by comedy guys, one was taught by a crusty old lady. We got the crusty old lady. And crusty she was, but she wasn't one of my worst teachers. By the end of the year, everyone loved "Mrs. R." She was the chain-smoking, math-loving grandmother we never had. Still, if any sitcoms needed someone to fill an "evil teacher" role, she totally looked the part.
Posted by
Matt @ 09/09/2006 11:01 PM EDT
As a side note, if you sign up for an English class and the professor/teacher reveals on the first day that he/she's the author of a published book that only 15 people on the face of the Earth know about, that's usually a omen of terrible class days to come.
I've had two teachers like that, and they tend to be messy and disorganized. One of them actually made us buy her crappy book… for no reason whatsoever!!
I had a music teacher who threw a chair the first time he met us, too!! The other teacher was like "and this is Mr. Joyner" He came out of the back of the room and threw a metal folding-chair into the pile of them at the back of the room. Then he proceeded to grunt and return to the dark recessess of the room. F**king bizarre.
Kinda looked like Peter Griffin
Posted by
Knegative @ 09/09/2006 11:09 PM EDT
Lot of anger and hurt feelings tonight. This whole thread just reveals the power/impact that teachers can have on our lives. I can't wait to see what Muppet Baby adds to the discussion.
On an unrelated topic of HALLOWEEN interest, I picked up Gojira today. Very excitied. The local TARGET had most of their Halloween stuff out including some very cool talking busts.
Posted by
The Manimal @ 09/09/2006 11:28 PM EDT
I once had a teacher who had a gastrointestinal episode during class… he vomited on my desk because he missed the trash can.
Posted by
TRUKK NOT MUNKY @ 09/09/2006 11:28 PM EDT
Jeff Mack, didn't you go to seventh grade? Seventh grade was the single worst experience of my life. I've deliberately left out any junior high experiences because there are too many.
I did think of one more story, though. My high school always had (I'm speaking as though it's years ago, I just graduated in June, oh well.) three classes with three different teachers going at once. Freshman year I had the teacher that apparently everyone loved, Mr. Sawyer. I hated him. I actually got a 40 one term because I just couldn't deal with him in class, I'd sit out. He acted less grown-up than the students. Then, in senior year I had the teacher that has always had a bad name, especially with the girls. I'd always been told "If you get Mr. Hauser as a teacher, switch as soon you can!" I didn't. He was the single best gym teacher I've ever had. He was actually a capable teacher, which usually can't be said for gym teachers, and he was really nice. So there's a lesson to you.
Posted by
Katherine @ 09/09/2006 11:51 PM EDT
My phys-ed teacher throughout grade school was an oversized tub of lard who only liked kids if they were perfect athletes. I wasn't even a decent athlete. She pushed us to swim perfectly (I still hear her voice whenever I swim in a pool), hit a ball perfectly, walk on a balance beam perfectly…and wouldn't understand when a child couldn't do it perfectly the first time. She was another one who insisted we run long laps around a huge playground area (that used to be the high school's football field before it moved to the mainland) in early June. Half the kids couldn't make it (including me); I actually remember kids passing out. She was so fat, she almost never came in the pool with us and her bathing suit almost looked like it was two steps from popping off. When I got my period early (at nine), she wouldn't let me in the pool while I had my period until someone proved to her it wouldn't dirty it.
And the sad thing is this woman was much-admired by many of my (generally better) high-school phys-ed teachers and only retired a few years ago. I pity all the kids who got stuck with her after I left; she was one of the reasons I moved to the Special Services District.
Posted by
starwenn @ 09/09/2006 11:56 PM EDT
Trukk - that's absolutely disgusting. I have a fear of puking, and that episode would have nearly killed me.
whoa, S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!
it's my b-day on monday, yep 9-11, and I've invited three people to my partay:
Mary Jane
Jack Daniels (hard cola drinks) &&&&&&
Doctor McGuilicuddy!
wheeeeee–heuyyyyy
Posted by
kidneyboy @ 09/10/2006 12:15 AM EDT
Wow, there's a lot of painful memories coming out here tonight. This is like a group therapy session or something.
I mostly had mediocre teachers, with a just a few astoundingly good ones. Ms. Pierson was my debate and forensics coach. I wasn't one of her favorite students because we just didn't get along all that well for some reason. Even so, she taught me more about how to think for myself than any of my other teachers or professors. I graduated ten years ago and I still have my medals hanging in a frame in my apartment because they remind me of what I learned from her.
I think the worst teacher I had was my 8th grade gym teacher. I've always been a clutz, and he had no tolerance for kids with no physical coordination. He knew I didn't like his class or him, and that's why he let it slide when the more talented kids would pick on me. We had classroom time once or twice a week, and he would ignore it when the big kid next to me would tear my papers, cheat off of me, etc- and we sat in the front row. One day the jackass next to me thought it would be funny to use me as a footrest. I finally had enough and threw my book at him. The jerk of a teacher was awfully slow to break up the fight- I ended up with a scratched cornea and a mild concussion. The teacher actually tried to assign me detention because he claimed I had started it.
In all fairness, the big kid did get a suspension- but he didn't like school anyway, so it wasn't much of a punishment.
Posted by
spaz307 @ 09/10/2006 12:15 AM EDT
I never had too many teacher terrors. My one science teacher in HS had a bit of a temper, though. He was once suspended for two weeks for picking up a desk and throwing it across the room… with a student in it. I hated all my gym teacher because they insisted on making us do gay shit like have coed square dancing. *shakes head*
I did have one bad teacher in college, but luckily it was a short mandatory course for everyone. He was one of those guys that was a dick just because he could be. If you were late or missed 3 classes he'd automatically fail you. If you came in late, he'd ask you to leave. He made exact directions to how your papers should be typed and formatted and stapled, and if you had so much as a protective sheet on it he'd throw it in the trash.
Posted by
Mystie @ 09/10/2006 12:19 AM EDT
Well, I graduated last year, so….yeah. I'm too tired to count back to when I was in third grade.
Posted by
Ziggy Stardust @ 09/10/2006 12:29 AM EDT
Oh, that was someone else. Sorry. *stupid stupid stupid*
Posted by
Ziggy Stardust @ 09/10/2006 12:31 AM EDT
I can level with Matt on the college English teacher bit. I had a teacher for… study skills? Whatever it was called, it was pretty much a useless class with a heavy English-like feel my first semister. I swear that woman was bipolar. I didn't exactly dislike her until the end of the year, but I think he hated me. Thank god it didn't translate to her professional side, but it was almost like she flipped a mental coin at the beginning of the year, and if it landed on tails, she hated your guts. In essense, I had Two-Face for a teacher.
Last thing I said to her was something like, "have a nice holiday," and was one of about two or three people out of the class that didn't get a response. Oooh, cold shoulder! I hope one of your many cats that you talk about every fucking day dies a slow and painful death, bitch.
PS, she also used "Curlz MT" font on EVERY paper she made. Open up Word and look at that shit. Impossible to read half the time.
Posted by
Kevin M @ 09/10/2006 12:38 AM EDT
I suffer from the distinction of never having hated any of my teachers. I always felt sorry for them, for having to deal with kids like myself and those who were far far worse.
I had a french teacher who couldn't speak or read french, and a math teacher who didn't know how to do the math… I guess those count, kind of.
Hey, did you ever crack open the rest of those Kinder Surprise eggs? They're fairly common here in Canada, I even see commercials for them on TV from time to time. Apparently the toys are different each year, and they advertise the new '06 toys. I guess the laws must be different here, in allowing "tiny pieces of plastic stored inside candy" to be sold.
Wow. I feel old. Jazzy has made me out as what I am – an old man. And now, I will go to bed.
(channels Waynes World) "Go to bed, Old man!"
Posted by
Terror Claws Cole @ 09/10/2006 12:41 AM EDT
I went to a very small private school for a few years. In first grade we had bad luck with teachers. Our first teacher had to quit for "personal reasons" and our second teacher got fired over spring break because she refused to teach the curriculum. By that point, the best they could do for a replacement teacher was the school administrator. She was certified, but she really had no interest in teaching anymore. To make things worse, I sat next to her daughter. As I said before, it was a very tiny school and we were the only two girls in the first grade. I picked up on things pretty quickly and was rather well-liked by the other kids. Her daughter with a bad personality wasn't all that bright and I think her mother felt that the best way to even the playing field was to pick on me. If her daughter talked to me in class, I got in trouble. If someone said something that made me laugh, instead of them getting in trouble for talking I got in trouble for laughing. We had these printouts of the multiplication tables and she stole mine when she lost hers. I had written my name all over it and you could still it everywhere that she had tried to erase it. Her mom still wouldn't believe that she had taken mine. In fact, we had a party on the last day before spring break and I left something out at my desk. Her first act as new teacher was to put my name on the board for not cleaning up my space. I never got in trouble in school except for those few months that she was my teacher. I ended up in the office twice (and in tears much more than that.)
I remember third grade when our class was walking down the hallway (single file of course) and another teacher bumped into the kid at the front of the line. She grabbed the kid by the arm, pulled him out of line, practically threw him up against the wall and screamed in his face about not looking where he was going. The rest of us were horrified. I like to think that our teacher was classy enough not to confront her in front of us, but had a little rendezvous with her in the teachers lounge later.
Honorable mention goes to every teacher who acts as if urination is a privelege, especially those who believe that elementary school children can train their tiny bladders to only need to be emptied during the one class trip to the bathroom immediately after lunch.
Posted by
Lori @ 09/10/2006 1:15 AM EDT
Dear Ms Barrick,
Pudding should not be crunchy.
Cordially,
jrh
P.S. I didn't do it.
Posted by
jrh @ 09/10/2006 2:02 AM EDT
I can relate to Matt too. Last semester I had this hippie English teacher who wrote bad poetry. She was pretty "old" well to me anyway since she was a hippie during the hippie movement. So we had 2 big assigments to turn in one in prose and one that was poetry. So I spent a long time working on my prose project writing about a teacher I knew who had reciently passed. And she gave me a C on the paper and wrote vague comments on it. But other people in the class got Cs and vague comments too. She wanted us to write in that overly descriptive style. Which is not my style at all. the way I write on here is like the way I write for school. When I turned in the poetry project I didn't care just as long as I didn't get an F I was ok with it by then.
In the spring 04 semester I had this bitchy teacher who had a specific way of turning in work. She was a bitter rejected reporter. She use to write for her neighborhood newspaper. All she ever wanted us to do was read the school newspaper she advised. She also wanted us to write editoral letters to the newspaper. By the end of the semester. I stopped caring and just sat there and chewed gum in class to piss her off.
In 6th grade my teacher was a total bitch! She was addicted to Diet Coke and if she didn't have any she would get all bitchy.Once she was acting so bitchy with the class and at lunch I spotted her with a box of tampons in a shopping bag. But she was a bitch even when she wasn't on the period. The kids in my class use to bully me and she tole me I was making things up, taking it too hard, and that it was my problem. Plus she was so vain and refered to her self as "the goddess".
That's all the teachers I'll mention for now.
I've had a few really great teachers over the years. I still admire them to this day, but they are more of the exception, not the rule.
I had a 4th grade teacher who was really old. During summers, she'd travel to a different place, then constantly bring it up during the next school year. At times, she'd try to one-up a student who talked about their experience by bringing up an exciting experience on one of her trips. It was as if she was the only person who travelled ever. Also, she was incredibly forgetful, but believed she still knew everything. When she messed up on something important in her lesson, she'd ignore it and move on. She'd constantly forget and mix up kids names unapologetically (she messed up mine at least ten times, even when I had just said it). I did not know the name Stephen was so difficult. I guess she thought Joseph was a much better name for me.
I had a 9th grade math teacher that was the tough jock/athletic type who also taught gym sometimes. He knew math, but the way he taught it was so bland and by-the-book. At the beginning of class, he'd read out a lesson and write a few notes on the board, then sit at his desk the rest of the class unwilling to help anyone. Most of all, he was incredibly moody (liked to yell). I remember one time, I accidently submitted the wrong page of a minor assignment. When I told him, he said "Oh, ya think?" in what had to be the most condescending tone in the history of the world and sarcastically took in my other page like he was holding gold. What I didn't get was his best friend was another teacher, who was widely known as the best in the school.
Posted by
Dr. Acula @ 09/10/2006 3:59 AM EDT
Have to mention this - when my mother was in school, one of her teachers threw an iron at her. An iron as in one of the things your iron clothes with. Yeah…
Posted by
Max @ 09/10/2006 5:30 AM EDT
Worst teacher hands down was my anatomy teacher in 12th grade. The horrible thing was, I didn't even need that class to graduate, I'd signed up for it because they pressured the students to take more science classes.
This guy was awful. He'd belittle all the students in the class. Nobody ever did anything that was good enough. I studied my butt off for that class, and never was able to pull a passing grade. I ended up in tears over that class more than once. Also, the man could never get my name right. Cristin is not my name, darnit.
My mother went to have a conference with him. Now, he was a person of color and I am not. And the first thing he said to my mother was, " I don't care what she told you, I am not a racist." My mother's response was, "Oh, she told me right off that you aren't racist, she says you're mean to everybody no matter what color they are."
Mom ended up talking to the school counselor about it. Apparently all the faculty knew what a horrible teacher he was, since the counselor just said, "Oh God, let's get her out of that class!"
So I moved to Home Ec, where I lived happily until graduation.
Posted by
Elfinlady @ 09/10/2006 7:17 AM EDT
Ode to Coach O"Brian
I used to love Gym,
I didn't understand the superiority…
of men to women….
God given from Adams rib?
Why don't we worship you…
we are the lessor beings….
oh you stupid girls…..
We don't worship you because you are a mean old sexist…
using God as an excuse to be a dick….
and damn us to hell for coming out of the locker room late….
I ran home crying,threw up in my hair and you called me weak…..
Screw tenure, your ass is gone…..
Oh Coach O'Brian….
Posted by
Fristine @ 09/10/2006 7:29 AM EDT
Mrs. Kyle, 4th grade. *scowls* F***ing hOr.
She made fun of me (in front of the class) for my accent (English and she was 'southern') and generally everything about me seemed to enrage that woman.
I hate her, hands down, I hate her. Hate everything about her and honestly hope she will die alone and unloved because of what a bitch she really is.
She is the reason that I will not go up to a chalk board in a classroom in front of my peers and write anything that could possibly be corrected.
God, I just really really hate her. I hope she has passed on or retired so she isn't ruining more children's lives in the realm of education.
Posted by
rimmie @ 09/10/2006 7:59 AM EDT
I wish I could remember this guy's name,he was a teacher at Centerville Junior High in the Lancaster PA area. Whenever he taught a study hall,he would go into the boy's room and uh,"amuse himself" in a stall. And,lest you think it was a stupid rumor,my friends and I caught him. If I could remember his name I would post it,but I can't and don't want to accidentally put another teacher's name up.
Manimal-My girlfriend bought me Gojira for Christmas,so I have to wait. But I'm happy knowing December 24th will be the last time I watch wild and crazy Steve Martin go to Egypt from America with a layover in Tokyo. WTF?
Posted by
Kid Nicky @ 09/10/2006 8:10 AM EDT
My last post I swear. My high school math teacher was on the old side and always put people in the hall. He did this often and for no real reason. One day I was told that I was gonna do terrible on the test the next day just as I had on the previous test. I was a bit confused, and I said "But I got a 94 on the last test." So I got sent out to the hall. The next year I was a teacher's aide for science and spent most of the hour preparing samples for the next hour's science class. The back room that I did this in shared a back room with his math class next door. He walked in the back and had a heart attack while I was there. He ended up having double bypass surgury after that. Even though he was a jerk to me in class, I got along with him after that.
Posted by
kb @ 09/10/2006 9:13 AM EDT
My 3rd grade PE teacher, Ms. Zellers, was pure evil. I broke my arm that year and had to sit out of a lot of PE. She didn't like it and told me to do push ups while the others were playing. I pointed out the fact that my left arm was in a cast and she told me to do one-armed push ups. Her girlfriend was also the assistant PE teacher that year, they were both evil.
My 11th grade ecology teacher was just creepy. My mom had surgery that year and had some complications, so I had to stay home a lot and help out. I explained this to the principal and all my teachers, and they were all understanding except for Mr. Smith, which I think was a fake name. I kept up with all my homework and got good grades on all the tests, but he still failed me at the end of the year for failing to show up. After the principal got called in, he said he'd change my grade to an A if I stayed after school and did some extra credit. As sleezy as this guy was, I didn't trust what his extra credit would be, so I took the F. The next year he was fired for looking at porn on the school's computers, and for trying the extra credit line on some freshman girls. Also, he was missing most of his right index finger, and would point at you with the stub.
Posted by
Stacey @ 09/10/2006 9:23 AM EDT
in 6th grade there was a social studies teacher - mrs. belfiore. she made you take tests in black colored pencil, which wasn't mean, just kinda creepy.
but if you didn't have your colored pencil, she flipped out.
she threw a textbook at a kid once, and then a desk.
and then she was suspended for the rest of the year.
Posted by
Jessie @ 09/10/2006 9:35 AM EDT
Forgot about my choir teacher in 9th grade. She was insane and didn't like to be up in front of people. Towards the middle of the year, she found out she was pregnant and came to class crying and told us all. Now being around 14, nobody in the class cared, and she freaked out and told us we were all insensitive and left for around 10 minutes. When she came back, she was fine and acted like it never happened. A couple months later, there's a rumor going around school that if you stared at her, she'd cry. So my entrie class just stared when she came in, didn't say anything, just looked at her. It lasted maybe 2 minutes until she snapped, said she hated us all and locked herself in her office and cried. She never came back after that day.
Posted by
Stacey @ 09/10/2006 9:38 AM EDT
Worst teacher? Its impossible to pick just one. The two severely overweight gym teachers for junior high were real winners. They tried to make the few kids with exemptions do things their doctors said they could not do and if the kids refused they would belittle them in front of the whoole class and call them weak. I know cos I had an exemption from certain activities due to asthma. A 5th grade teacher would not let us have water or any kind of food or drink in class yet she would eat all day long… and what was the deal with the water fountain nazi teachers? ONE SIP OF WaTER!! or else you got whacked with a ruler. Its farking 100+ degrees out and they werent exactly cooling an old school building off effectively soo we were always hot and sweaty and yet could only get one sip of the crappy tap water? I was in a opreschool daycare for ONE DAY that pulled the same stunt with the one sip of water thing. Parents never sent me again after that. There was also the librarian in 4th grade that would not let me check out Ol yeller cos it was above my reading level. After that I kept bringing in my own books from home - I was into Tom Clancy and the Dragonlance books at the time. Weird combo I know..
Posted by
kittycatgirl2k @ 09/10/2006 9:41 AM EDT
Terror Claws Cole I was in third grade in 1999. I actually grew up with a lot of the toys and books that Matt talks about thanks to a young love of comic book stores and flea markets.
Man, I have been scanning all these posts, hoping none of them match a description of ME! One of my worst fears is that I will be somebody's 'worst teacher' story someday…so far so good! How bout you, Manimal??
In third grade, I was NOT good at long division. Our teacher was going through a nasty divorce with another teacher in the school- she went from a nice lady to ultra bitch. I had worked so hard on my homework sheet that I had erased a little hole into the paper. She held up my paper in class and said that "some people are so stupid when in comes to long division that they ERASE HOLES INTO THEIR PAPERS! Right, Jennifer?" then she looked right at me….and the whole class looked at me…and I burst into tears.
In a way she helped me, though- I went home that night and at 9 years old I announced that I would be a teacher- A GOOD teacher that didn't make kids cry just for kicks. And the rest is history.
Posted by
Muppet Baby @ 09/10/2006 12:16 PM EDT
Muppet Baby: Bad teachers are also a big part of the reason why I decided to go for a teaching degree. I think a lot of people are inspired to teach by how bad their teachers were. Kinda sad, but at least the bad teachers are inspiring people somehow.
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/10/2006 2:05 PM EDT
I feel sorry for that choir teacher… sounds like she had anxiety problems and picked the wrong career. Also shows what dicks kids can be to authority figures. On the flipside she shouldnt have been looking to her class for emotional support either… still feel sorry for that one though. The rest of the teachers on here sound like demons especially the ones that threw chairs or other large inanimate objects…
Posted by
kittycatgirl2k @ 09/10/2006 2:24 PM EDT
My 7th grade math teacher, Mrs. Durban. Her nickname was "Mrs. Bourbon," for reasons I'm sure can be inferred. She had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the year and was never seen again.
Posted by
Monte @ 09/10/2006 2:27 PM EDT
If there's any plus to our litigious society, it's gotta be that no teacher would dare try some of these stunts today, right? Throwing shit at students? If someone gave my kid a black eye or left my disabled child wandering after hours or fucked with their grades I would sue the ever loving shit out of all involved parties.
Ratemyteachers.com doesn't seem to be as comprehensive as ratemyprofessors.com, which makes perfect sense, but is disappointing. All my schools were full of new teachers I'd never heard of. Though my junior high band teacher was in there, with a comment simply saying "I think he's catty". That amused me; I actually liked the guy okay, but it's a fair point 
Congrats on the new job Tetsu! Happy bday kidneyboy!
My 7th grade teacher Ms.Stewart…….I don't want to talk about it
Posted by
Mightystalfos @ 09/10/2006 3:18 PM EDT
I have had a few bad teachers in the past. Most of them were decent people, just horrible teachers. I think the worst one was my Elm. Statistics teacher. He was very flighty, and would jump from one problem to another, then back. He also had a habit of doing an entire problem one way, but would then tell us that we shouldn't do the problem that way. He was all over the place. I just wrote limmericks in his class:
There once was a professor named Heim
His thoughts could change on a dime
He confused his Stat. class so that they could not pass
And they all had a terrible time
Needless to say, I failed the class.
Posted by
DeeJay @ 09/10/2006 3:31 PM EDT
Ok, I know this is long, and a little late for SNT, but, hey, I've been working all weekend out of town, just getting back today, and I'm bored right now.
In a shock of shocks, my least favorite teacher was my 7th grade match teacher. 7th grade must be hell all around. I'll admit I had a bit of a rep as a smartass that year, only when called for, teachers in the same "clique" had it out for me then, but others I got along fine with. When a teacher got snippy, or I questioned something (not in a bad way), they'd get pissed, and try to cut me down to save face, which I was not about to take. This teacher I want to talk about was the worst of all. Her name was Mrs. Shetler aka Hitler, aka Mama Mustachio (for having a mustache obviously). She looked, much like the creepy old lady for Poltergiest, with glasses, and a southern accent. Now, I hadn't even got the chance to say anything remotely bad, she was all over me from day one. She was mean all around (I wasn't the person who came up with calling her Hitler), but I was her favorite target. I suck at math, so she had all the ammo she needed, because her early attempts to flat out mock me were getting too obvious, where every kid in class knew she hated me for no real reason, plus, I always zinged back. I was in severe need of actual math help, a few years later, a nice math teacher actually took the time to realize how mathlexic I was, and tutored me to my first "A" in the subject, but ol' Hitler opted to simply use my math failures to her advantage. It was clear, her goal was to completely degrade me into cowering in fear over the humilation, or finally blow my stack and get kicked out of school for ripping her a new asshole.
Our "feud" got worse as the year went on, she got me booted from class for about a week, before my mother called the school to tell them she was forcing me to sit alone in a dark room (literally) for the duration of her lesson, without any work to do, or even trying to ship me to another teacher. I got taken back, and, because I'm Latino, and the school freaked over a racially charged lawsuit or whatever (personally, I hate playing "the card", even if it seemed like the obvious conclusion to jump to here), she then buddied up to me real quick, even briefly giving me lessons after school, only to drop that once the fuss was over. Things went back to the way they were, leading to the titanic showdown everyone knew was coming.
As usual, when reviewing assignments with the class, she singled me out, knowing that I sure as hell wouldn't have a damned clue what the answer was. So, instead of you know, HELPING me find the right answer, she went off on a diatribe in front of our class of about 25 kids about what a FAILURE I was, and would never amount to anything in my life, just about as clearly as that, only it went on for at least 5 minutes, with kids now looking on in horror. I couldn't take it anymore, and quite frankly, told her to "shut the f*ck up". I then told her how tired I was for her crap, calling her on every time she singled me out, why she never punished the other kids, who, at times, were worse than I was (one kid would throw loud tantrums). I wasn't yelling, but I was very upset, and using mass amounts of profanity, maybe not the "best" way to get my point across, though she sure as heck didn't try cutting me off or talking over me for the first time ever. She actually was near tears, and, when I was finished, I simply walked off, went to the office, and told them what I did. The fun didn't end there. She had gotten her just desserts in front of our whole class, so, to save face, she decided to twist the story when she talked to school officials. In her version, she never even said anything to me to start things, I threw a desk across the room (I think she claimed to be the target), screamed at her, and threatened her with violence. Of course, with the neighboring teacher hearing no shouting or desk sailing across the classroom, and 2 dozen witnesses, the real story came out. Besides, I was boxed in, to even try lifing a desk to throw, I would've found it hard to clear it above the surrounding desks, at least smacking some poor kid in the head, it was totally ridiculous.
In one last gasp to "control" the class, she drew a line in the sand, actually insituting a new policy where she split the desks in two sections, one side for "Those who want to learn", and "Those who don't". Out of spite, just about everyone, besides three or four kids chose the non-learning side. Of course, the office freaked, and the next day, classes were back to normal.
She refused to even acknowledge me for the rest of the year, walking on the other side of the hall as me even. She retired from full-time teaching the next year, though returned as my sub twice the following year. Once, she singled me out, much like Squee, during a social studies lesson about Nazis, saying that if I somehow were to find my way to Nazi occupied countries back then, I would've been killed by Hitler. I kindly laughed it off, asking how many Puerto Ricans lived in Nazi territories, kicked out of the class promptly. The second time, I hadn't even gotten to my seat in 8th grade English, she was subbing, and we had one quick exchange for nostalgia's sake over her questioning my seating arrangement, sitting next to a friend (despite the fact she had the damned chart), my retort having me booted instantly, walking right back out. After that incident, she retired, for good this time, giving up teaching altogether, and leaving the state. Either coincidence, or, she was just tired of people like me giving her much-deserved sass.
Posted by
Rob @ 09/10/2006 3:51 PM EDT
i had a US History teacher that looked and acted like Kathy Bates in Misery.
there was a substitute in elementary school that all the classes but ours loved. she put two kids in the coat closet and held the door shut. i think we got her fired.
i had this disgusting seventh grade history teacher that said 'pacific' instead of 'specific.' she was enormous and was always eating something. she was also the cheerleading coach.
my little sister had a first grade teacher that would tower over the students and yell. she apparently made half the class cry daily.
Posted by
allie @ 09/10/2006 4:13 PM EDT
Oh yeah, my first grade teacher gave more homework than any teacher i've ever had (up till ms.Stewart that is).
Posted by
Mightystalfos @ 09/10/2006 4:26 PM EDT
squee: The sad thing is, the incident with the wandering child was only about three years ago. And the teacher still has her job, although the child's mother did pull her out of that pre-k class after the incident.
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/10/2006 4:30 PM EDT
how could i forget Mrs. Planas-Canti? she was the Spanish teacher in my middle school who also taught my french class.
I'm pretty sure you don't roll your R's in french. but to this day my friends and i still mock her threats to give us detention referrals: "i'll give you a D-ARRRRRRRRRRRRR"
Posted by
brianfax @ 09/10/2006 4:49 PM EDT
Rob, good for you for standing up for yourself! I wish I'd been that collected as a child. I was more likely to cry and want to hide. ;p
Sorry. Screwed up my HTML, didn't mean to yell. >.
Posted by
LemonWitch @ 09/10/2006 5:57 PM EDT
That would be an easy one. The worst teacher that iv ever had was my 6th grade french teacher, Ms. Conant. She was the spawn of satan. Damien had nothing on her
She openly admitted to making "additude" 30% of the grade. which meant that not only did you have to know the material, you had to have fun doing it, or else. She based her grades apon if she liked you or not. Even if you handed in all of your homework and got As on all of the tests, if she didnt like you she would go back and doctor her gradebook saying you didnt. She was caught doing this several times, but she had tenure so she wasnt fired. Almost every parent complained about her to the school.
I remember one time my friend was in the class while his mom was having a parent teacher conference with her. His mom was wondering why ehr son was getting such low grades. She said it was becuase he got bad grades on tests and never handed in his homework. So at this point, my friend called bullshit and went over to her. He took out his notebook and took out every homework assignment that she sais he was missing, all of them graded by her. he also took out all of the tests with her grading on tehm, none of them as low as she said tehy were. His mom was getting pissed and told him to go stand out in the hall. He went out there and couldnt make out what his mom was saying, but heard her screaming at teh teacher.
She was still not fired.
Posted by
Chris @ 09/10/2006 6:07 PM EDT
Reading all the other responses is dredging up some long-repressed memories.
My elementary school art teacher was evil and more concerned about us messing up her artroom than anything else. I remember one project we did that involved some kind of 'special' paper which was apparently on the pricey side and I remember her saying as she handed it out in this snooty pissed-off voice. "Now these sheets of paper cost a ~*DOLLAR*~ each, so if you mess it up you won't get another one!!!!" This was also the same person who yelled at me for coloring outside the lines.
Fortunately, the sheer awesomeness of my middle school art teacher helped cancel this out.
Come to think of it, I got in trouble for that a lot. I hated coloring, I just wanted to draw my own picture with the crayons, so I would, reguardless of what the assignment was.
I got in trouble like that in Kindergarten once. There was this easel with tempra paints that you were only allowed to use TWICE per year during playtime (I know, WTF?). Because I loved to paint, I usedup my two times pretty fast, but one day we had a sub so I had this brilliant idea that I would ask her if I could use the easel again. It worked, and I got to paint for a THIRD (gasp) time. But my brilliant master plan came crashing down when my real teacher came back the next day, found out I'd thwarted the system and took away my playtime. My teacher was just ticked because I outsmarted her, something I did on a disturbingly regular basis.
One of my math teachers was also a nightmare. He would make fun of people in the meanest way humanly possible and liked to pick on me in particular. I was picked on enough by my peers and didn't really want to get it from my teachers too, and him constantly singling me out in front of people who were already looking to start shit with me didn't help me much. I would actually get made fun of more by my peers because of things *he* said about me. (It still hurts me to think about this so many years later–I can't imagine being so messed up in the head that picking on a group of 11/12 year olds seems like a good idea.) He was also really fond of giving us homework that was entirely different than what he taught in class and then yelling "It's all the same stuff!" at us when we didn't get it and asked him to explain.
Sigh… *shakes head*
Funny thing was, the kids in my math class who didn't get picked on *loved* the guy. My misfortune was their entertainment.
On the plus side, I found some of my favorite old teachers on that website and people were giving them high ratings.
Posted by
Crow T. Robot @ 09/10/2006 6:20 PM EDT
my worst teacher was probably Karen Levendusky because she was pretentious,unprofessional, and worshipped Ann Rynd
Posted by
Jenny @ 09/10/2006 6:29 PM EDT
I was kind of "the smart kid" in school, because I was much younger than my peers, and usually teachers liked me, but there was one who DESPISED me… She acted nicely enough most of the time, but there were 3 incedents that lead me to beleive in her unfounded ( I was usually the "teacher's pet", quiet, polite, ALWAYS assignments done early, usually extra credit)hatred of me… I was in her Anatomy/physiology class, and she was standing infront of the room, lecturing. At one point during her lecture, she pointed to her arm and announced that that was where her tibia was. I immediately raised my hand and corrected her. She sneered, went to look it up, then got this sick look on her face and was queit for a moment - Before announcing to the class that she not only wanted them to read and do the activities in the whole skeletal system chapter of our texts, but also wanted everyone to draw and label the human skeleton because "she wanted everyone to know their bones as well as Amber…"… Now I will also mention that she was the ONLY teacher giving out homework, as it was the friday before a 3 day weekend… and she knew from experience that I was often accosted by the older, and therefor larger students who wanted answers, or wanted me to do their homework. Needless to say, I went home sore and covered in spit balls that day .
The second incedent took place a few months later - The school was participating in a big essay contest. If you won at the school, you got to go and read your essay for the county, then the state, then national. I was thrilled - I LOVED writing, essays in particular, and even though she was one fo 3 judges, I won the school contest, and was going on to the county competition, which was after school hours. She handed me a sheet of paper, very official looking, with the date, time, and place of the competition, and a breif congratulatory paragraph. The date was about 2 weeks away, so I had plenty of time to prepare, pick my clothes out, and memorize my essay. The big day came, and when I showed up, with my parents, and a few of their freinds, the building was dark and quiet. We found a secuturity guard and showed him the letter, and he was kind enough to call a building supervisor, who informed us that although the hall had not been booked for any school event, or essay competition, he DID know of the contest, as HIS DAUGHTER HAD WON the previous week - he even faxed my father a copy of HER letter (which looked NOTHING AT ALL like mine, even down to the sigature of the superintendant), along with HER essay, and her award. I was crushed, and my parents went to the schoolboard. The teacher claimed she had no idea where that letter had come from, that it wasn't the one she had given me at all! But, nonetheless, she apologized, and even went so far as to get me a gift… I set of dollar store (they had the price sticker intact) salt and pepper shakers in the shape of pigs. Now I was 12, and what is a 12 year old going to do with salt and pepper shakers, for one thing. For another, I was a bit overweight, and if I wasn't being picked on for being the smart kid, I was picked on for that. Several of my peers in her class had been written up for calling me "Ms. Piggy".
Posted by
Leigheshe @ 09/11/2006 10:25 AM EDT
Hmmm … do I choose Sister Lettitia who used to beat us for no reason? Or Father Bruger who got arrested on child molestation charges? Nah, too obvious. I'll go with my charismatic Catholic freshman year religion teacher who told me I was going to hell on a weekly basis because I listened to punk rock and asked her repeatedly to speak in tongues. So, Mrs. Arachillian, this one's for you.
Posted by
LemurCat @ 09/11/2006 12:05 PM EDT
Well I never had any really evil teachers, but there are a few incidents that I can recall now that seem sort of mean.
I was in fourth grade at the time and we were having a math lesson. For math we would get out of our desks and sit on the floor while the teacher taught us lessons. The teacher's name was Mrs. Henderson, and I didn't really have a problem with her. This was pre-Junior High though, and I was an awfully dense kid back then. Anyway, I was bored so I wasn't paying too much attention. Math wasn't very difficult for me, and I already understood how to solve the math problems she was showing us… so I just thought about something more interesting. Then she began to call on people to solve questions out of the text book. Guess who she called? The unattentive me. She wanted me to solve Problem 4, but looking in the book, there were TWO Problem 4s: the practice question and the actual homework question. So naturally, I asked which one. She wouldn't tell me! She got pissy and told me I needed to start paying attention in class and then she told me to go up to the board and solve the question. I stood up and went to the board… and proceeded to calmly wait for several moments before she let me sit down again. I don't remember what she said next, I only remember my reply, "I don't get embarrassed very easily." Which was the goddamned truth because I was such an airhead back then that I didn't even realize when people were trying to ridicule me! (Of course, that all changed come 7th grade in which I was teased mercilessly…) Even then I didn't hate her. In fact, two years later one of my classmates mentioned that Mrs. Henderson hated me… and I was just shocked. Maybe the guy only remembered that one event? I don't know. But it was awfully mean of my teacher either way.
Another time was in 7th grade and I liked the teacher, though I knew a lot of people, especially guys didn't. Notes got passed behind her back, calling her a cow. *shrugs* None of my doing. Mrs. Aho was her name, and she was my Geography teacher. We were doing a group project and I was having a hard time of it because my groupmates weren't doing their fair share of the work. The project was to create a boardgame based on a South American country. I think we had Panama, but the point was that this was a boardgame and boardgames needed dice.
Well everyone in the group forgot about those. It was our fault entirely as we were reminded, but what was insane was that the day we had to turn in the project, the teacher kicked us out of the classroom and woudn't let us back in without a die. Well we were 7th graders, what were we supposed to do? We can't just drive out to the nearest Snyder's and pick up a pack. We tried all the obvious stuff first. We went and interrupted Math classes to see if the Math teachers had any… NO. Eventually we ended up back outside the classroom, trying to figure out where else we could look. Finally I got an idea and told one of my group mates to go back into the classroom and ask the teacher for a piece of paper, some scissor, tape and a marker. I then proceeded to sit down and MAKE a fucking die. It was enormous and didn't even roll, but it was cube-shaped and got us back inside the room. No thanks to the teacher. Even when the games were graded and tested by other groups, she had to borrow a real die to the game. I don't think this counted as real cruelty to us, but it does seem awfully dumb to actually expect students with no money and no mode of transportation to come up with some dice in the middle of school.
Alright, one last event that wasn't really mean or thoughtless… just an example of outright pretentiousness. In 11th grade, I took Chemistry. Not my favorite subject, but it was a prerequisite to Advanced Biology, which I actually enjoyed for the most part. Again, I didn't really have a problem with the teacher except for a slight tendency on his part to talk down on the students. Well one day he told us that he was quitting his job and that it was his last day. He had a better job lined up with the 'government' apparently. Maybe he gave the principal a two weeks notice, but he sure didn't give us one. So because it was his last day, he was going to have us watch a video that would open our eyes to the truths of society.
Folks, he had us watch a PETA video. Yes, we got a peek at the disgusting and horrible life that pigs, cows, and chickens experienced before they're off to the slaughterhouse. It was pretty nasty. Chickens with malformed feet, turning cannibal in their close-quarters. But throughout the entire video, I couldn't help but thinking, "Just because you're a vegetarian doesn't make you superior to me, dumbass."
Lunch was right after that class. They were serving hamburgers. I ate one just for him.
Posted by
Sucrose @ 09/11/2006 2:25 PM EDT
God, I write too much…
Posted by
Sucrose @ 09/11/2006 2:26 PM EDT
There was Ms. Tisdale, my high school English teacher, who let us watch the OJ verdict in class and when he was found not guilty, she threw a yardstick at the board and screamed, "THE EX-HUSBAND GETS AWAY WITH IT AGAIN!" and stomped out of the room. She was just crazy, but not necessarily mean.
The main honor goes to Mr. Kimura, who dampened our third grader Halloween spirits just after roll call by somberly stating that on October
Posted by Matt. 