Sometimes I wonder why people get into teaching. Whenever I see an unhappy child-hating teacher, I have to wonder what must’ve happened to them to make them hate kids. I mean obviously they must’ve liked children at some point, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have got into teaching. Personally, I believe that there’s only so far you can push someone before they crack. You see even retired war veterans crack under the pressure of running a school sometimes, and that is saying something. At school, it was always weird whenever we had inspections. Some of our cruellest teachers would suddenly become nice and give out lollipops, and that was somehow more unnerving to us than when they were being their usual cruel selves. I think it’s fair to say that school has played a significant part in my life, I think it’s partially the reason why I hate being proven wrong so much. There were teachers there that made me feel like nothing. They made me feel like I was destined to fail and that I was stupid. So, whenever I got the chance to prove them wrong, to stand up for myself- it would just give me such a buzz. That jolt of energy, it was everything. Sometimes, I have this recurring dream where I perform well in a show and prove my old music teacher wrong. I don’t know why, but a part of me still longs for her approval. In a way, I guess I just want to prove it to myself that I can do it. You see, back when she used to teach me, she told me that some people just aren’t cut out for singing when I was having second doubts about taking on a singing role, I’d hope that she’d encourage me but instead she just reaffirmed my concerns. In recent years, I won at a karaoke game so I guess that’s something, and I did get an A- in music for singing so yeah… I think as a student it’s easy to forget that your teachers actually want you to succeed. In Secondary, I remember having such a revelation that the system wants students to pass, not fail. Writing it down here, sure- it sounds stupid in premise that I would ever doubt such a thing. But back then, sometimes it just felt like certain teachers had it out for me- and I realise how paranoid that sounds. I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with school, most of my teachers were recovering alcoholics, overly-eccentric people who were fun but didn’t teach us much (or taught us the wrong syllabus- that happened one time and I had to redo a whole academic year because my previous teacher I had taught us the wrong topics), homophobic, and/ or scary. There were no openly gay teachers at my school, only homophobic ones. I remember feeling so alone at school, so out of place. Teachers would make jokes and say that gays were pointless and didn’t help society like it was no big deal. Never considering the possible gay students in the room. And if they weren’t spewing gay insults, they were sprouting hate about bisexuality. My form tutor, one-time when asked who they thought was gay in our form by a student, remarked “I don’t mind gay people, but it’s those that claim to be bi that get me- that’s just being greedy, I don’t care what you call it, that’s what it is- at least gay and straight people have the decency to pick one, like jeez make up your mind” I mean, I’m not even bi but even I almost feel offended at that. I just…how can people sit there and come out with such nonsense? Ugh. Just wanted to share my mind.
I have one openly gay teacher at my school and I hate him for see reason. He also hates me. So yeah, that is great. I don't know any homophobic teachers really, but I also don't know if any of them are. They probably don't care because they know it's not actually any of their business. I have had some outright cruel teachers, and some great ones. I had a history teacher this year who would kick my chair when he walked by my desk, set off a fog horn in the middle of class, and would call me a nerd whenever he say what I was reading (varies from books on relativity and physics, to psychology and DnD forgotten realms books). And I have had great teachers who made sure to be wonderful and nice to me and I would basically intrust my life to. My third grade teacher would take me to icecream with a couple of my friends and during class she would read us books and have us do mini math competitions instead of just staring a a book. Aka best 3rd grade teacher ever. Really teachers tend to vary a lot. I have even had a sexist teacher who literally gave the girls that submitted the exact same answer to questions in my group more points than me (essay questions, etc...) Even though they just copied my answers. I had to have a talk with her... And the principle. As for people that claim bisexual people are greedy, well can they just go and continue to be ignorant in silence please. I don't care about their opinion because it is irrelevant and wrong. The should just shut up already. Actually, I think most people should just shut up already because if they aren't going to listen to others they shouldn't have to be listened to.
Never had an openly homophobic teacher, but I did have this PSHE teacher who was a bit weird. He was talking about LGBT bullying and he actually said, 'Gay people are different we just have to accept that', and I was like...dude... Then when showing us pro- LGBT posters he disagreed with one that said there were many cases of homosexuality in the animal kingdom but none of homophobia so which was unnatural, saying since the majority of animals didn't display homosexuality the argument it was natural was invalid? I was a bit like, the majority of animals don't have lungs does that make lungs unnatural? I mean I'm sure he's not homophobic, but he didn't really seem very...broadminded about it all. To be honest it was a bit uncomfortable, when someone's a teacher it's much harder to tell them their wrong, it's not like your friend who you can argue back to- they have a position of authority over you. It's what makes bad teachers so much worse than bad peers. I remember a friend of mine was told by a teacher not to bother eating because she'd probably throw it all back up again (my friend's not bolemic but is very skinny), my mum who was a teacher was furious when I told her. Not only does it break the law (teachers are bound by law to treat all students equally) but it's an abuse of the authority you've been trusted with. When you're employed as a teacher, especially for young kids, the state or school is entrusting you with the authority to take care of them, not to abuse that authority to get your own petty kicks. I think that's what really gets me about bad teachers.
Agreed, and at school there was definitely a scale of teachers that you could get away with arguing with, and some you really couldn't. I once argued with a teacher at school that you weren't really supposed to argue with, it was a sort of unwritten rule. My peers saw me as over-confident and cocky after that, but you know what? It was worth it. If not purely for the fact I got to see the look on that teacher's face when I proved her wrong. You see, she'd sent us forms to fill in and sign, but she'd sent us the wrong ones. When I tried to explain that to her, she acted like I was an idiot and accused me of not being able to use a computer properly, refusing to believe she could ever be in the wrong. After the second time of trying, I just snapped. Everyone else had given in their assignments with the wrong form attached because they were all terrified of correcting her, but she only bothered to check mine- not anyone else's, so she saw the wrong form and said "look, it's not exactly difficult, I don't know why you're finding this so hard, just get the right form- I sent it to you like everyone else, no one else has found this hard, so why do you?". I turned to her, trying to explain, and after being interrupted time and time again with condensing talks about how to use buttons on a computer I finally said "You know what? NO. Look, look at this! (I got everyone's assignments and dumped them in front of her) Look at this form! You see! They're the same ( I showed the version she gave me next to the version on some one else's work). You wanna know the truth? No one has done this correctly because they're all too bloody terrified of you! Look at them! Look at the forms on their work! No one wanted to correct you because you bloody don't listen and you're scary! That's it! So maybe you should've checked other people's work that they somehow must've managed to sneak past you, and not just mine for once because maybe I'm not the idiot after all, ok?". She quietly apologised once she realised her mistake and sent me the right form. Everybody gawped at me as I sat back down in my seat as I walked back from her desk. Worth it.
Interesting. In 7th grade I had a math teacher who, though she wasn't openly out, was clearly lesbian to us clever middleschoolers with excellent gaydar... I liked her so much, and everyone joked that she was going out with the other math teacher, who was very likely also lesbian. We always saw them together, talking happily, and it just made me feel so happy for them Overall I've had really good experiences with teachers. I like to think I've made an impression on a few of them. A few times I've had teachers who just didn't know what they were teaching, or taught us the wrong stuff... ugh. My English teacher last year was really cool, but like, cause literature is like 80% love, he'd make all these dumb jokes that'd be normal for straight people but awwkward for us gay people...
Don't get me wrong, I have had a several nice teachers before, but they didn't make as much of an impression on me, (after all, we're more likely to remember a slap to the face than someone praising us- metaphorically speaking) but a lot of the teachers I've had over the years, I didn't like. I think it was better in College with teachers because there's less of a power divide, they don't speak down to you like an idiot like some of the teachers in Secondary do.
Really? I think for me, both the good and bad become memorable. I agree with the last sentence: the older you get, the less teachers talk down to you. I like it that way, not necessarily to think that I am equal to the teacher, but it feels like a more genuine exchange of information -- we learn stuff from the teacher, but they also learn something from us. Learning involves a lot more discussion and less rote memorization. Maybe this isn't the system's fault, since children aren't very good at quality conversation...
I think it very much depends on the child, as children develop at their own rate. For example, my cousin developed good conversation skills from a very early age, whilst in comparison it took me a lot longer to develop those same skills. In a way, as I saw my cousin develop these skills over time, I couldn't help but feel almost...disappointed with myself. It made me feel like a failure, and I kept thinking how unfair it was that these things just came so naturally to him. One of the hardest truths about reality is that some things just come easier to others, and at times that can be hard to accept. There's this sense of annoyance I feel when people succeed at things that I find difficult without having to try as hard as I did. But I know that there are people out there who look at me and think the same thing. There are probably things I can do with ease, that others have tried hard at their whole lives and still struggle. I don't have the solution to access a better level of education. I recognise the system is flawed, but there is no singular solution to fixing it. All I can do is share my experiences and thoughts I guess, it's better than having them on loop in my mind and no one to share them with.
True. But I mean, like as a child, you haven't really experienced much in life... maybe that doesn't even make a difference though, I don't really know. Are you referencing anything in particular? I've always been jealous of people who are real social and good with words... in social settings almost nothing comes natural to me and I often overthink every little occurrence. I feel like a robot trying to take in their mannerisms and imitate them... In the beginning they think I'm normal, but then, I'm just not. On the flip side, I was born with a really good memory and I've never had any trouble with school, or learning stuff, for that matter. I work hard, though, so at a certain point I do not know how much it really matters if something comes easily to you or not... The education system over here is bad, too. It's not terrible, but it could be improved so much... I wouldn't know where to begin to try and fix it. I learn more from the internet. I guess I've always thought that the kids who are determined enough to learn will find a way around it all. School's more of just practice... maybe? I don't even know what I'm thinking.
I went to catholic schools only. Big emphasis on religion you either had the day off or got dragged to church on holy days of observation. We had one teacher we joked was a lesbian. She wasn't a lesbian but was one of the most religious teachers. She taught religion my last two years of school which to her meant showing videos with titles like Abortion:the silent scream and videos on abstinence. We had a retreat team come to the school and thats how I learnt it's okay to be gay as long as you don't act on it, I don't know if my teachers were homophobic but the majority of the students were. Lesbian was the worst insult you could give someone. I invented a fake boyfriend just so no one would guess. I hated school .
Are you me? I relate to some of this so much. Usually I'm jealous of those naturally gifted at maths, directions, those with less sharper senses who can handle more physical sensations and information without feeling overwhelmed, and being good at speaking and explaining things without confusing others and tripping up on their words. I'm good at explaining things when given the chance to write them down, but when I try to improvise in spoken conversation it usually just comes out wrong and sometimes I have to draw a diagram or picture or something since I often have a clear picture of what I mean in my head, but describing it is another thing- hence why I love 3D modelling and writing so much, they help me to express what I'm trying to convey that I would otherwise have trouble getting across. I have a good memory too, sometimes people are weirded out at the little things I remember. Personally, I remember some really random things that I'm not sure why my brain bothered to store but oh well.
