The Only Thing I Could Do...

[gramma dishes]

   I was a second grade teacher.  Good grief!  I hear these stories!  They're awful!  Yet, it's scary.  I have to wonder what my second graders are saying about me now nearly 50 years later!  I LOVED my kids.  I hope they knew that.

[Kimblee]

  I was a second grade teacher.  Good grief!  I hear these stories!  They're awful!  Yet, it's scary.  I have to wonder what my second graders are saying about me now nearly 50 years later!  I LOVED my kids.  I hope they knew that.

I bet they knew. My first grade teacher was a saint. She was a little old lady with a cane and the tiniest, sweetest voice and she had very old fashioned ideas. Like handwriting lessons and reading to us out of books like The Wizard of Oz and Winnie the Pooh. The originals, not the picture books.

The only time she ever raised her voice was when she was praising us, scolding was done out in the hall and in a whisper. (ex: "Now Kimblee, its not nice to throw glue sticks. I know you were upset at Billy, but you can't do that. And Billy, Kimblee didn't like being pushed anymore than you liked getting hit with a glue stick. You are classmates and should be helping each other not fighting. Now appologize and go sit down. i won't have to punish you will I? No? Because you've learned? Good... Very good.") But do something she was proud of and the next county might hear. lol

Even though she was quiet and gentle, she ran a tight ship. I remember over hearing the prinicipal commenting that all year he hadn't heard any complaints about her students. Everyone loved her, and we knew we were loved back. I just wish everyone could have such a good teacher.

[doodlemor]

  I was a second grade teacher.  Good grief!  I hear these stories!  They're awful!  Yet, it's scary.  I have to wonder what my second graders are saying about me now nearly 50 years later!  I LOVED my kids.  I hope they knew that.

I taught grades 1 through 5 at various times, and I LOVED my kids, too.

 

I had a second grade teacher who was so very horrible.  I'll call her Mrs. Frankenstein, because she was a monster to me and because her last name is similiar.

I taught with a nasty 2nd grade teacher like that, with a similar name.  Was this in upstate NY?  She once asked me to watch her class for a few minutes.  I went in and talked to them a bit, and then I told them how good they were.  A sweet little girl raised her hand and said something like

"She tells us we're very bad."

This broke my heart, but as a 2nd year teacher there was little I could do about it.  The witch  woman was near retirement, and the principal was a doofus who didn't want to do his job, [or rock the boat.]

We had a screaming, nasty 5th grade teacher, about four principals and almost 20 years later.  This guy knew what was going on, but seemed unable to confront her because she was very pretty and rather sexy.  Fortunately she moved away.  Hopefully her next principal was a woman who was immune to her *charms.*

[Asharah]

When I was in elementary school, I was constantly teased by a teacher who wasn't even mine.  Apparently, on my sixth birthday, I accidentally said I was five.  Miss Keller heard it, and for the rest of the time I was at that elementary school, I was "Jacklyn Five", said in a ridiculous manner.  It would get me so annoyed!  I was bullied enough by my classmates and didn't need it from a teacher.  Finally, at the end of my time in elementary school, I ran into Miss Keller again in the hallway.  She wiggled her fingers and, again, teasingly called me "Jacklyn Five".  I simply stared at her, with my best 11-year-old expression of complete exasperation.  Miss Keller finally blinked, walked away, and never spoke to me again.  Good.

Somebody should have told Miss Keller that an elementary school teacher taunting a child is like somebody teaching a pig to sing. It accomplishes nothing except to make the person look like an idiot. 

[Thipu1]

I suppose I've been fortunate but I never had a really bad teacher until I was in Graduate Library school. 

She taught an advanced cataloging course and gave the craziest assignments.  She would take sentences from the NY Times and require us to provide Library of Congress cataloging records for them.   An example was, 'New York University is digitizing its slide collection'.  Each weekly assignment included at least a dozen of these doozies. 

I'd been doing original cataloging for about ten years before taking the course.  I was an 'amateur' cataloger but I showed my work to 'professional' catalogers and they assured me what I did looked fine to them.  However, with this woman, I could do nothing right. 

For every course in Grad School, it was always my practice to arrange a meeting with the Prof in which we could talk about differences of opinion in a professional manner.  This usually worked out well.  It was not the case with this woman.  She informed me that I was a 'classic B student'. 

Excuse me, you don't take elective courses in Grad School to earn a B. 

She was also very interested in my Uber-Boss (can you say 'pumped' me for information?)

This Prof. came along about the time of Umbrage and also looked like Umbrage.  She was vile on many levels.   

[Coley]

  I was a second grade teacher.  Good grief!  I hear these stories!  They're awful!  Yet, it's scary.  I have to wonder what my second graders are saying about me now nearly 50 years later!  I LOVED my kids.  I hope they knew that.

I bet they knew. My first grade teacher was a saint. She was a little old lady with a cane and the tiniest, sweetest voice and she had very old fashioned ideas. Like handwriting lessons and reading to us out of books like The Wizard of Oz and Winnie the Pooh. The originals, not the picture books.

The only time she ever raised her voice was when she was praising us, scolding was done out in the hall and in a whisper. (ex: "Now Kimblee, its not nice to throw glue sticks. I know you were upset at Billy, but you can't do that. And Billy, Kimblee didn't like being pushed anymore than you liked getting hit with a glue stick. You are classmates and should be helping each other not fighting. Now appologize and go sit down. i won't have to punish you will I? No? Because you've learned? Good... Very good.") But do something she was proud of and the next county might hear. lol

Even though she was quiet and gentle, she ran a tight ship. I remember over hearing the prinicipal commenting that all year he hadn't heard any complaints about her students. Everyone loved her, and we knew we were loved back. I just wish everyone could have such a good teacher.

My high school band director ran a very tight ship. His expectations were very high, and if we didn't meet them, we knew it. He was strong in his leadership, but he wasn't mean. I learned more from him about discipline, responsibility, team work, and pride in accomplishment than I learned from any other teacher I ever had. I count him among my strongest influences. The lessons I learned from him followed me well into adulthood.

Flash forward 25 years ... DH and I joined a new church. Just by coincidence my band director and his wife also are members. I'm beyond thrilled to spend time with him again and to know he'll have an influence on my DS, too.

As a teacher myself (college instructor), one of the best compliments I ever received from a student was that I am tough but fair. I have high expectations of my students just like my band director had high expectations of us, and I expect my students to take responsibility for their performance. Knowing that I am perceived as fair was rewarding to hear.

[siamesecat2965]

I just remembered the music teacher in my elementary school.  For whatever reason, I don't think she really cared for me.  I don't know why, other than the fact I was and am completely devoid of any musical talent whatsoever. 

Does anyone remember the orff instruments? Kind of like a xylophone?  I don't remember too many of the details, but I believe me and a couple of other kids were supposed to go to the music room and meet with her at lunch to practice for some upcoming concert.  This was what she "allowed" the non-talented or her not favorite students to do.  Now I lived 2 blocks from school, so I went home.  But this day I brought my lunch and stayed, went to her room, and no one showed up, not even the teacher!  I don't know what happened, and probably was too shy to try and find out, so I sat and ate my lunch, and waited for lunch to be over when I could go back to class.

[Night_owl]

My eighth grade math teacher told me I was so stupid I would be lucky to be get a GED and be a waitress or a hair stylist (I don't why she had a hatred of the those jobs).  I wasn't stupid, I have dyslexia.  I was diagnosed at 17.

When I graduated from college with a 3.9 average, I sent her a college announcement and thank her for encouraging me by giving me a chance to prove her wrong.  I took great pleasure in being her nurse several years ago.  I made sure to treat her with respect and professional courtesy.

[whiterose]

Funny "only thing I could do" happened at a Spelling Bee when I was in the 4th grade. The word they gave me was "waltz". It was NOT on the list. I had not heard of it- keep in mind English was our 2nd language. So I misspelled it and was out. The only thing I could do at the moment was pull out my loose tooth and gross everyone out!

English teacher apologized to me later that week since that word turned out to NOT be in the list- yup, my mother and I looked up the list later. I wonder if an apology from her was enough- or if there should have been another run-down in the spelling bee, but what I wanted as compensation at the moment was a new toy.

Did get my revenge the next year when I won

~~~~~

I do not recall any specific teachers bullying me on a regular basis...when I was a student, that is.

When I was a teacher at my first school, the principal made my life impossible. Not only that- but my teammates were no good either. One of them, the English teacher in our team, was the worst one. She constantly put me down and demoralized me. She said things like "principal is not going to renew your contract" and "the students do not respect you", as well as refusing to provide me any assistance. The other 3 teachers in our team followed her, but were not as offensive. But it's like everything I did- no matter how harmless it was- drove them up the wall. I wonder if they envied me because I had a Masters degree and they did not- the one lady in the team who did have one did NOT engage in active bullying. The lady who was in the process of getting it was not terrible. The man who did not have one was so-so, but he was only 30 years old. But the main offender may have had various reasons to envy me.

About a year after this, I was subbing at a new school. Both the English teacher and the Social Studies teacher from my old school's team were subbing there. And a former student had me come say hi to the SS one- but the English one we did not see. Which is moot, since before the end of the day, the substitute teacher HQ already had received a DO NOT SEND from that school. The HQ was surprised, since my record was pretty good otherwise. We investigated, but the school did not reply. I deduced it was that those two snitched about me.


~~~

Sadly, at that same first school, I was accused on picking on one particular student. He was the class clown- but in no way did I single him out unfairly, or put him down, or grade him harsher than others. I guess it was just a personality clash. Had I been terminated because of my specific issues with him, I would have understood. But the principal and the teammates bullied me so much: people on Ehell have deduced that they were bullying me on purpose in order to get me to quit voluntarily.

[wendelenn]

this whole thread makes me think of this song from A Chorus Line (and yeah, I know it's from the godawful movie version but. . .)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1awl3cqFYgY

[Daquiri40]

I did have my "I did the only thing I could do moment".  I cannot drink milk.  I told Sister that so she gave me chocolate milk and a tuna fish sandwich.  I told her I can't eat or drink this but she would hear none of that.  I eat it told sister I didn't feel well promptly walked to the front of the room and projectile vomited all over her.  It truly was the only thing I could do.  I never had to drink milk or eat tuna again though.

Ha!  When I was in 3rd grade, we stood in line and got our milk.  Every kid who got chocolate milk would walk back to their desk shaking it up.  It was just done!  :-)  Someone had put a pencil hole in my milk and as I shook it, chocolate milk shook all over Sr. Diane's nice clean black habit.  She started screaming at me and I burst into tears.  She immediately apologized and hugged me.  Ha!  Bursting into tears was the only thing I could do and it worked.

[Outdoor Girl]

My experience was in high school.

I was taking Grade 13 physics (back when we did 5 years of high school).  The teacher for the class was the vice principal of the school and was also running for mayor.  He was frequently late to class and was not a good teacher.  I had A's in all my subjects; I was scoring a D in his class.  But my parents refused to sign the drop form for the class.  I knew I didn't need it for university; I could take one Grade 13 equivalent course which counted towards my 40 course degree.

Then they had the parent teacher interview night.  VP wasn't at his table where he was supposed to be.  My parents finally caught up to him in the middle of the gym and proceeded to talk to him there.  This bacon-fed knave told my father that the reason I was doing so poorly in his class was that 'Girls can't do science'.  My drop form was signed that night.

I took the equivalency course at university and got 96%.  And I graduated with an Honour's BSc in Applied Biochemistry and I'm working in a science field.  But 'Girls can't do science'.

[weeblewobble]

I was generally very well-liked by my teachers, but for some reason a middle school teacher decided I was a lazy, ungrateful wretch with a terrible attitude.  She pulled me out of class (with the door open, so the other kids could hear) to expound on the laundry list of my faults, both as a student and a person, several times.  She let me know in no uncertain terms, I was nothing special and would one day join the ranks of unskilled labor in a salt mine somewhere.

More than twenty years later, I have achieved some considerable, public success in a difficult-to-get-into artistic field.  Many of my teachers have come to my events and I am more than happy to let them know how much I appreciate them and how they contributed to my success.  (Seriously, my English teachers changed my life.)

I ran into Evil Middle School Teacher a few months ago, and she was super-sugary-sweet to me, telling me how PROUD she was of me, and how she ALWAYS knew I would going to make it big some day!  I could have returned her hug and nodded and lied about how she influenced me.  I could have said, "It's nice that you tell yourself that." or "Isn't it strange that someone with such a terrible attitude managed to accomplish something?"  But I didn't.

I stepped out of her hug. I gave her my classic "showing no teeth" tight-lipped smile and turned on my heel, walking away as fast as I could.