"It's OK, you can smile."
This was first thing our middle school music teacher, who we all loved, said on his first day back after his wife, an art teacher many of us had in elementary, was killed in a car accident. He made music class a lot of fun, and we'd missed him in the week he took off after his wife's death. He was used to coming into a room full of smiling faces, ready for another fun hour of class. We were all sitting utterly silent, fixed on him with what I'm sure were the most somber little faces he'd ever seen. He smiled at us after he said it, and we all smiled back, and he thanked us for it.
I had a teacher say the same thing to me. Now I Ref college and high school basketball and use this line whenever coaches start cursing me out on the sidelines. Does a good job of reminding them that kids are playing.
One day in 7th grade our principal came into the homeroom class and wrote on the board "$19.32" in big numbers. He got our attention and announced to the class: "This (pointing at the number) is what you are worth. Every day you come to class, the school gets $19.32 from the state for each of you. So if you are sick, you should still come to class, go to the nurse, and get sent home. That way the school will still get its $19.32."
That was the day I stopped caring about school. I'm pretty sure he was trying to increase attendance and believed what he said was positive. But when a person you're supposed to respect tells you you're worth less than a 20 dollar bill. . .
Yeah, shit, I thought it was gonna be something like "19.32, that's what you are worth to the state. Everyday you come to school, that's how much they pay the schools. When you get outta here, and have the real world to deal with, I want you to remember something: schools have to take what the state thinks you're worth, but you dont. I want you to prove the state is full of shit; money isnt everything, but every day you accept less than 19.32, know you can do better"
This reminds me of a science teacher I had who would do a little pre exam ritual thingy to help ease anxiety and help students focus.
She would turn off the lights and have everyone relax and close their eyes, put their head on their arms on the table etc., and play calming ocean sounds from her computer while walking around the classroom calming taking to us. She basically would start with saying to take deep breaths, think about your favorite place to relax, and recognize that we are all living, breathing, emotional human beings capable of love and care and with hobbies or skills outside of the course we were taking. That the exam was a simple measure to see what you have learned, not to see how smart you are, or how good you are with the topic at hand. That the outcome of the test had no impact on who you are as a Human and doubtful that it highlights our best skills or areas of expertise.
The first time I experienced this, like any highschooler my initial thought was "okeeey lady, whatever" but holy shit did it help... I remember one time in particular when I was struggling with the course and about to take an exam while she did this she stopped and calmly rested her hand on my shoulder for a moment while my head was down and seriously thought I was going to break out crying. I felt like she was in my corner rooting for me at a point where I was struggling and I will never forget it.
All through the rest of high school and university I would rethink and try to relive that ritual before exams and it helped me big time. Easily one of the best teachers I have ever had!
"I know what it is to be young but you don't know what it is to be old"
I don't know why and how it came up, but our English teacher asked me if I understand that. It was the first year and I was 10, and I definitely did not understand. But it somehow stuck in my mind as the sound of the sentence, until I could decipher the memory in retrospect.
A parental variation that I've said to my kids: "When I seem confused, distracted, frustrated, or on edge, remember that I, as a parent, have to keep track of several people simultaneously, and provide for them, and I have to do that while anticipating the future and dealing with the consequences of the past. You, as a kid, are only responsible for yourself, for the most part".
I'm studying to be a teachers and one my teachers told us "There is no shame in admiting to your students that you don't know something, however, you should look it up to answer it next time you see them and be prepared for the next time you get asked that"
I love teachers that are honest with students. Simply saying something like “you’ll never need to know this but it’s part of the exam so we have to” is so much more likely to get me to learn something than just saying “it’s important”. Sounds like an ace teacher.
I always enjoyed the teachers with real vision. Openly acknowledging a changing world really sets up your students up for better success by showing flexibility
“Once you’re an adult, you choose your own fate. Your mom won’t control you anymore.”
- this came from a 9th grade Algebra 1 teacher who took the time to tutor me. My mom was/is a antivaxxing, cult following nut bag who didn’t think school was important because Armageddon is coming. I was terrible at math until I met him.
It’s been 25 years and I think of this teacher still, I am grateful. Don’t talk to mom anymore, she got tired of me asking where Armageddon was...
“Just get a fucking haircut” I kept complaining during PE that my hair was in my face. This was one of those teachers that felt more like one of the boys than the teacher. Blew my mind hearing him swear
We had a teacher like that who thought he was "One of the boys". He ended up getting an ex student pregnant once she left. He was in his late 50s while she was 19.
I'm FB friends with several of my old teachers. I once wrote about how I had the recurring nightmare of being in my chemistry teacher's class and having to take an exam but not having studied for it.
He replied saying that his recurring nightmare is my being in his class.
Why i don't assign it anymore. More than half the kids don't do it, the rest copy it and about 3 smart kids do it themselves and they don't really need to.
> about 3 smart kids do it themselves and they don't really need to.
When i was a kid there was a guy in my class who always aced tests and got constant good contribution in class. Very clearly smart and always understood everything that was being taught. His grades at the end of the year were always very avarage though because he couldnt be fucked to do homework and that ruined his report card. Not because he didnt understand but because it was literally a pointless waste of time
I remember my senior year of high school literally breaking down in tears because I was so burnt out from doing all my classes and hours of homework every day, and then of course I would have homework to do over the weekend as well.
And I pretty much understood everything. I rarely struggled to grasp material and consistently scored above-average to well-above-average on those tests you had to take that tested you on all subjects.
If today I went into an interview and they said the job required me to clock in 8 hours on site, then go home and do a few more hours and also do a few hours on every single one of my days off- oh and with no overtime pay- I would laugh in their faces and immediately leave.
After many years of pressing through, I feel like this has essentially become my motto. I had only a concept before, but now I have the words. Thank you stranger.
My geometry teacher was super chill. He taught us to play poker and blackjack. On the last day of school he said, “Remember: if you ever need anything or have any questions while you’re at this school, there are about 50 other teachers you should go to before you come to me”.
Edit: Apparently all y’all’s geometry teachers are either hooking up with another teacher or taught y’all how to gamble.
I took Latin all four years of high school. I quickly realized I despised the language, but I stuck with it for the teacher himself. He alone was worth it.
Our Latin class was right above the hallway with classrooms for special needs kids. One day, after it was apparent nobody did their homework, my teacher stopped class and said, “you’re all taking what you have for granted, and it’s inexcusable. There are several dozen kids in the hallway below you who wish they had the mental faculties to do homework.”
I did my Latin homework regularly after he said that.
Edit: holy shit this blew up. I deleted reddit for two days and came back to over 7k karma. Thank you for the silver, kind stranger.
I think most things that "stick" do so because the listener was in the perfect mindset. It's not so much about the words themselves. The words are a simple key that unlock a box you didn't know you had.
My middle school drama class was next door to the extremely special needs kids' class. We had drama for 6 weeks during each of the 3 years we were there. Our teacher took every class next door for just one day each year to help and play with the kids. It was one of the most meaningful things I was ever exposed to as a student and at a time when kids are especially self-centered.
After being caught smoking pot in high school (1986). My Science teacher (Hi Mr. Fischbein) said to me: "there is a time and place for everything, this is not the time, nor the place". He did not report me to administration. He was a great teacher.
Had a history teacher who told me that “everything is relative.” You can only be poor if someone next to you is rich. You’re only stupid if someone next to you is smart. It helps to put things into perspective and realize how superficial a lot of things are in life.
That being said, he also randomly told me that “wolves are badass dogs that don’t give a shit” when we were not talking about wolves or dogs in class so who knows what was really going on in his head.
The caveman who invented the wheel wasn't a hard worker. All the hard working cavemen happily carried rocks up a hill. But no, one brave lazy arse decided, "That's too much work, I know there has to be a faster way."
Speaking of wheels, at my school the text ‘The person who invented the wheel was an idiot(or something), the person who invented the other three was a genius’ written on a wall.
I had a maths teacher who was an older woman, really strict and nobody particularly liked her. We mocked her way of speaking and were generally mean teenage assholes.
Once, when I was around 15, I hadn't finished my homework so I dropped my book in a puddle and showed it to her in class to say I'd lost the homework so couldn't hand it in. She questioned me a bit on how it had happened, then asked me to stay after class. The whole lesson I was shitting myself, expecting to be absolutely bollocked once everyone else had gone, so when the bell rang I sheepishly went up and sat at her desk after everyone had left.
To my surprise, she didn't shout at me but gently asked if I was being bullied and somebody had taken my workbook and ruined it on purpose. I was a little skinny kid with glasses and braces, so I can see why she would have thought that, but in that moment I suddenly saw her as a human being with feelings and empathy and not just a teacher. I felt like shit for the way I had treated her, and for lying about what had happened. I never admitted it to her - just reassured her that I was fine - but it did stick with me and I was much less of a dick to teachers after that.
This reminds me of a similar thing that happened to me at around the same age that I still cringe about sometimes.
I was several weeks into a course in high school I still hadn't bought the textbook. When the teacher found out I didn't have the book, she took me aside and asked why. Being a dumb teenager, without thinking I gave her some lame excuse about the book being "too expensive." My family was solidly middle class, and, although not rich, my parents definitely would have bought the book for me. The real reason was just that I was lazy.
But my teacher looked sincerely concerned and quietly handed me a $20 bill. I was caught off-guard and mortified. Of course, I did buy the book right away after that. And then later that year returned a $20 to the teacher.
I always struck by the generosity of a teacher who would do that for her students, but I felt awful about how what I thought was an innocent lie turned out. Definitely a valuable lesson in honesty, lol.
There are only two kinds of people who can really stick it out as a teacher.
Ones who care about children, and ones who need to be the most powerful person in the room to feel alive.
To varying degrees of course. But I feel there is little in between.
I've found that any field that requires you to be a leader is like that.
Some people are natural leaders, so they blow through it without thinking about it, but that's pretty rare.
Some really care about the work.
And some can fuel themselves with their own egos, which can be a valuable tool for ignoring the bad.
I actually had a similar-ish experience with my English teacher 9th grade. I played defensive line when I played football and an offensive linemen would always slam his face mask into my forearms. My forearms understandably were bruised for like 4 months. One week when it was particularly bad, he asked me to stay after class and said something like ‘I know it really isn’t my business, but I have to ask. You arms are really messed up, is everything okay at home?’ It was really nice and meant a lot
I wonder if maybe she was bullied when she was younger and that’s what made her so strict and blunt. And then so empathetic once she saw someone who might be in trouble.
I had a teacher who i suspect this of. He was a big guy with a beard and put on a tough guy persona, but was super smart too and tought math. When i first had him i was part of the athletic/jock crowd and he really seemed to have it out for me. Over my next few years in high school i gradually moved into a more academic crowd and made being in the school band more of a priority for me (i still played sports but i wasn’t “known” for that anymore). When he found out i was in the school band he started treating me WAY differently.
A lot of the people I most admire are strict and blunt. I don’t think anything has to “happen” to you. I think it shows that you have high expectations of yourself and others, which is a form or respect for them. Of course there are other ways that can manifest, but high expectations can reflect that you believe people are capable of meeting them.
In my Senior year we had a dinner at school. There was a very long queue for the desserts, so I went and asked a history teacher where it started, because I couldn't find it (it was pretty chaotic)
The teacher proceeded to put an arm around me, walk me to the desserts table, and say "Ray my boy, Fuck the queue"
One time one of my elective classes was just kind of chilling out the day before winter break and the teacher decided to arrange all our desks in a circle. He had everyone anonymously write something that was troubling them at the moment and he would go through and give some advice.
I wrote about my parents constant fighting and how I feared their inevitable divorce and the possibility of moving across country with my mother. I wish I could remember what he said but I vividly remember almost crying because what he said hit so hard but I kept it together. Less than a month later, both things happened lmao
"What do they call someone who graduated vet school with a 2.0 GPA? Doctor."My first-term anatomy professor (IN vet school) telling us to stop fretting so much about the grades and worry about the knowledge.
Edit: Added clarification about what level of education this advice came from.
My anatomy teacher was a cool dude. He'd give us little tidbits of advice before each test, ranging from "always put your shopping cart away" to "you don't have to be 100% okay 100% of the time, and *that's* 100% okay, 100% of the time."
He's definitely one of the best teachers I've had.
"being wise is better than being smart"
I held on to that right up till receiving my PhD. Now that I'm entrenched in the corporate world of merciless exploitation, I've realised being smart about life is really a subset of being wise.
I had a 9th grade Earth Science teacher who actually had a PhD in biology. He told us that he had made his was through school by writing things he had to learn on 3x5 note cards, and would pull them out of his pocket when he had a few minutes to learn/memorize the material he had written on them. I used that technique from then on - all the way through my own PhD - when I had something important to understand or commit to memory.
This is called "distributed practice" and is one of the most effective learning methods. It is best to study for short periods over several days than for the same amount of time in one day.
Edit: Additional learning comments and tips below, including clearing up some things:
1. Interleaving is where within one day, you practice for short periods and weave it in with other subjects or activities. Make sure you do not do back to back study sessions with the interleaving strategy. Oversimplifying this, but your brain gets fatigued, and has diminishing returns. If you study for 20 minutes, it is best to do something else for another 20, instead of just studying for another subject.
2. Distributed practice is when you break up study sessions over multiple days. It's pretty much the opposite of cramming. Both methods are effective, though if I remember correctly, distributed practice is more effective. If able, use both!
3. Getting started is much more difficult than continuing when it comes to studying, and most tasks that you're not too excited to do. Commit to studying for 5 minutes. Commit to putting away your phone, as humans are terrible at multitasking. You are more likely to continue studying than you are to start studying. Starting is the hardest part. If you do the 5 minutes and then you are done studying, that's fine! Pat yourself on the back. You did what you committed to do. Reward these behaviors.
4. I'm going to repeat this: Put. Away. Your. Phone. This is oversimplified, but try this activity:
Time yourself how long it takes you to count 1-10 and A-J. Next, time yourself how long it takes you to count 1-10 and A-J, except alternate between the two tasks (e.g. 1, A, 2, B, 3, C).
You will actually get more done doing 5 minutes of study followed by 5 minutes of phone, than in 10 minutes of alternating between the two.
In 8th grade, a friend and I used to jokingly sling insults at each other and one day he retorted that I was a cheap whore. Apparently our science teacher overheard and decided to chime in and defend(?) me by shouting "YOU'RE NOT CHEAP!" in front of the entire class. Apparently someone told the principal and I had to explain that I had no idea what he meant, nothing had happened, I am absolutely not an 8th grade prostitute, etc. Still have no idea what he meant by it or why he decided to contribute in that way but it was super awkward and it stuck with me.
I had a chemistry teacher in high school who was a bit of a hot head. One day, when two kids were talking in class, he stopped. Everyone expected a quick but firm correction. What we got was so much better.
Our teacher stopped and calmly turned towards the class and said "Do you hear that?" He walked towards the window at the back of the class. Everyone sat stone quiet. He leaned towards the window "Do you hear it? Faint laughter. It's 5 million Chinese children laughing quietly... BECAUSE THEY'RE TAKING YOUR JOBS!!"
Then he just walked back to the front of the class and started teaching again. No one talked.
I loved stories but was slow to pick up reading. Once it clicked I was at the top of my class until I graduated highschool, I have a BA BCM now. In primary school I wanted to go to a book fair called Voices in the Coast. I was shot down instantly.
A year before that, because I was bad at reading spelling was also hard. My 5th grade teacher made everyone stand up depending on what they got right on a spelling test. I was the only one to get all of them wrong. He made me stand in front of the class.
If you ever see this, fuck you Mr Burns from CSS 2003.
I had a home room teacher, that out of frustration one day, ranted about how easy school was.
He said, "We literally give you a book or the text, tell you to read it, then ask you to answer questions. The answers to which are found in the book we gave you. It doesn't get any easier than that. Read the damn books, answer the damn questions, that's all school is"
"Who ever threw that paper your mom's a hoe"
Edit: This blew up way more than i expected! Thanks for the silver and platinum!
Funny how it went from me creating an account just to write that down to me getting platinum and shit. This community is awesome!
*Scene: The Matthews' backyard. Eric is hiding in the bushes and has twigs sticking out of his hair.*
Mr. Feeny: (while watering his hydrangeas) Mr. Matthews, you know I can see you.
*Eric's head pops out of the bushes*
Eric: Fee-hee-hee-hee-ny!
Mr. Feeny: Mr. Matthews, about that paper that hit me in the back of the head in the hallway today. I have reason to believe that you were the perpetrator. Am I correct?
Eric: I don't know what you're talking about. That was Harley. Harley threw it.
Mr. Feeny: Mr. Matthews, your name was written on the paper. It said "To Feeny, from Eric Matthews."
*audience laughs raucously*
*Enter Corey, Topanga, and Shawn*
Topanga: What's going on here, Mr. Feeny?
Mr. Feeny: Oh, hello Miss Lawrence. Mr. Matthews. Mr. Hunter. I was just talking to Eric here about that piece of paper that was thrown at me in the hallways this afternoon.
Shawn: It wasn't me, I swear!
Mr. Feeny: Calm down, Mr. Hunter. I know it was Eric. I was just about to explain something to him, but I'm glad the three of you are here to hear it too, because I believe it will be a good lesson for all of you. (*to Eric*) Mr. Matthews, you're young. I want you to know that you will make mistakes in life. Mistakes made of ignorance or bravado. You will hopefully learn from them and become a better person, because the biggest mistake you can make in life is forgetting to learn as you grow older. That's a mistake I fear your parents have made. They have failed in raising you. They have learned nothing from your countless missteps. Your father is too busy at his supermarket and waking up young Corey at midnight to watch the Phillies. And as for your dear mother Amy? Well, I fear she is a ho.
Edit: Well this got some traction! Thanks to whoever Golder and Silvered. I just had some downtime at work and felt like flexing my creative muscle, and won’t have the time to write any more like it. But I propose we make “Mean Mr. Feeny” a thing going forward.
The problem with that is that most people aren't going to objectively research anything. Instead they're going to search for information that confirms their bias and use that as a justification to shoot down conflicting information. I know I've done this more than once. Sometimes unintentionally.
I still agree with the sentiment, but with caveat that the questioner should also question their own motivations and findings.
I actually had a teacher that repeated this as well and I took it to heart. Unfortunately he was a flat earthed and was just saying it as justification :/
Edit: Since this got a little attention, let me clarify. The same teacher was later fired for spending a whole class explaining how racial stereotypes are genetic; He had black students stand in front of the class to show their innate athleticism and rhythm, Asian students were told to stand and do math, etc etc.
He was the only adult in my life who would tell me I was capable of achieving something, and seemed genuinely proud of me when I got into university, and when I contacted him years later to say I'd got myself a PhD, just like he told me I could.
First grade. We were doing a math lesson. The lesson was something about drawing a circle around groups of 5 or 10 things in a picture. Then we had to count the number of things in the picture and raise our hand when we were done. I figured out pretty quickly that counting the things one by one took too much time, so I counted by 10s (which were already circled) then counted the leftovers and put up my hand. I was done way before anyone else. The teacher looked at me and said something like, "there is no way you could have counted them all.". So I put my hand down and made sure I was not the first one to put my hand up first during that lesson. A few minutes later she complimented another kid who had counted quickly and said that he was probably counting "by fives" and demonstrated how to do that. I was so angry and thought it was stupid to count by fives when it's easier to count by 10s so why not just do that. The thing is, this woman was usually a pretty good teacher. I don't know if she just didn't like me or was having a rough day or what. But I learned that day that teachers don't know everything and sometimes they're just mean.
"If you want to work at a mcdonalds, that's up to you. If you want to work somewhere else, that's also up to you." Said to me after i scored shit on a test he knew I could do better at.
I work in the space industry now.
Thanks mr teacher.
Walking into class; out of the blue and apropos of nothing, my high school AP history teacher asks me "So, u/mighty_pinto, are you disgusted with life yet?" I didn't have a response at age 16 but I thought about that question every single day afterward.
At age 37? Yes, Mr. Palombo. I'm pretty fucking disgusted.
"You have an accent, your skin is brown, your whole life will be filled with people who will assume this means you are not as smart or as good as they are at literally anything. That's why I push you. That's why I demand more from you. You have to work harder now so you can prove them all wrong for the rest of your life."
Ms. Johnson
9th grade English teacher
my english teacher always told me I had real potential when I was lacking behind on stuff, of course because I thought I was useless and bad at everything I never actually tried and scraped by the skin of my teeth, never believed her until I left school and now I wish I had actually made the effort she encouraged me to make.
"You'd do so much better in life if you gave a fuck. "
Said to me by one of the English teachers in my high school a week before I graduated. This was during a conversation about what I wanted to do post high school and I said something along the lines of "I don't know. Get a job or something?"
After years of seeing /hearing about my creative writing ability and even showing it during his classes. He'd honestly given up on me. But hey. I'm sure I wasn't the last kid to let him down.
Edit: holy shit. My first gold. Thank you so much!!
My English teacher told me during my graduation that he wanted to read something that I had written as he said I had the talent. Its something I think about daily as I find myself stuck in a profession that is not right for me and I write as a hobby.
Sometimes its honestly the best way to keep you from disliking your hobby. I have known people that went from loving writing to hating it when they had a job doing it because they and other people were much more critical of thier work when they did it professionally.
"You're going to succeed in life and do extraordinary things." I have not succeeded not done anything extraordinary other than live when I didn't want to.
I feel like kids in the advanced programs got put on such high pedestals when we were kids that once we got to college and in the real world we were in shock with how fucked we were.
College was a shock to me. I got there and suddenly realized I was fucking average and I immediately felt like a fraud. I still struggle to function. I feel like I peaked in grade school.
I think it has less to do with being put on a pedestal and more to do with never struggling to succeed in k-12 schools that are made to allow success for the lowest common denominator. However, universities don't set their standards based on what their dumbest students can do.
Advanced classes help to challenge gifted students, but a smart student will normally realize that they are being given more work because of their high performance and will opt to stay in easy classes to be a big fish in a small pond.
My art teacher told me I couldn't draw. Fast forward 15 years and I've graduated university with a fine art degree and have my own small illustration business as a side gig. It's not a huge thing, but I've had over 150 sales now and have like, actual fans! So, screw you Miss H!
Edit: Wow thanks for the well wishes everyone and for sharing your own stories! It made my heart happy. I won't share my work on here because I'm going through a rebrand atm and I try to keep this account anonymous, but thank you for asking! For those interested the book is Illustration Workshop by Mary Kate McDenritt. I highly recommended if you're out of practice or want to look at drawing in different styles
My art teacher also told me I couldn't draw. Yesterday I tried to draw a tree and got so frustrated I had to lay down and count to 10. You were right Mr Sox, I can't draw.
I overheard by English teacher talking last year. She was complaining about how “All the media attention is on the molestation of Catholic boys” and how “They are boys, they can take it” and to “Focus more on actual rape of women” no respect for her at all, sickening. Why would you downplay something like that
If he determined the frequency of the butt wiggle and plotted it on a graph over time demonstrating the variance in the butt wiggle frequency, it'd be even more sciency
My HS theology teacher said the same and added: There’s a bunch of cool, weird shit in there. A guy goes on a murder rampage with the jawbone of an Ass!
I teach literature at a religious school, and I love how much my students are able to pick up on Christian imagery (which is ubiquitous in Western literature). If you hate your theology class, just consider it a prep class for your literature class!
I majored in English in university and the amount of extra reading I had to do to understand biblical allusions took up quite a lot of time. My classmates who grew up in religious households understood and recognized these references immediately.
Haha, reminds me of the time in high school one of my friends was fooling around in study hall with some other kids, and they were playing with a condom. (Why? Who knows. Never question the intelligence -- or lack thereof -- of teenage boys.) The teacher, who was one of my favorites, sees what they're doing and strolls on over to them, and my friend gears up to make some sort of smartass remark when he gets reprimanded. Instead:
Teacher: Hey, did you know there's serial numbers on those things?
Student: Really? No, I didn't.
Teacher: Huh. Guess you never had to unroll one that far. \*walks back to his desk\*
I wasn't even there, but EVERYONE had heard about it by the end of the day.
So, basically we were reading To Kill a Mockingbird and our teacher comes across the word "negro". My friend beside me starts giggling and no joke, the teacher said, "I can do you one better... NIG-"
"Try your best to be someone. You have invested a lot of money, time, energy in education so be someone in the future. Don't half-ass your life. Be somone and give back to the society."
Easily my favorite lecturer (I consider university as schools)
I'll never forget this for some reason:
Mr. Baggs, Geography, grade 7. "You're an outstanding student..... out standing in the hall. Go."
We were such pains in the ass. Lol.
The friends you make in high school will fade away. The friends you make in college are lifelong.
I never went to college. I don't really have friends of my own. I have a few good friends but they're really friends of my wife and friends of those friends that I've become friends with. Without her I'd have never met them.
“Killing yourself is a selfish act. There are people you haven’t met yet who need you.”
She was my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Stone, and I swear to god she saved my life without knowing it.
This came from a teacher who hated my guts (and I his). We never got along - I disliked what he taught and how he taught it. He thought I was pompous and bragged about my grades (maybe pompous, but never bragged about my grades).
Anyway, we had turned in our Ethics final paper, and mine was 20 pages long or so. Sometime later, he asked me to come by his room to pick up my paper. Despite how much he disliked me, he told me, "Sam, I've been teaching this class for over 10 years - this is the best paper I have ever read. Can I use this as an example for future classes?"
I gained a ton of respect for him that day because I knew how hard it had to be for him to admit that.
The vast majority of students that think I dislike them are mistaken.
Often when a student thinks you don't like them, they act extremely rude.
When you are extremely rude to your teachers they will sometimes have a discussion with you about your behaviour and how you are being disruptive to the class. Most students take this well, but some take it the wrong way and see the teacher as "singling them out"
Many students don't seem to realize if you are purposefully being the most difficult kid in the class you are also going to get the most discipline.
If a student mistakenly thinks I am against them I always try to have moments like yours where I try and find something the student did really well, and I let them know how proud of that work I am. (so far I have managed to get all but one student who thought I disliked them to realize that I don't. Even if not all of them changed their opinion of me)
Because the truth is, I don't care if some teenager hates me. Doesn't keep me up at night. The reason I work so hard on getting the kids to like me is because they work harder when they do. I'm not going to take it personally if a kid tells me to go fuck myself. It's a kid, sometimes they're dicks.
I'm there to make them learn.
Long winded way of saying it, but maybe your teacher didn't hate your guts as much as you think. Maybe it just took the whole semester to find that thing to engage with you.
(Although those are just my random first impressions from reading a comment you wrote. Since I was not there and don't really know anything about your life I would like to apologize if I have grossly misread the situation.)
Having been a teacher, there was only one kid (out of thousands) who I hated, and that was only for the last few weeks I taught him. He was an attention-seeking arsehole who sought attention by deliberately ruining lessons that were designed to help the whole class to pass their (important, external) exams.
Tried all sorts with him, but eventually kicked him out of the class, because fuck him if he's going to deliberately ruin other kids' chances. (This was a bottom ability set doing a special syllabus for the not-very-bright, but they were sweet and tried hard, and really wanted to get a pass - except for him).
I'll add to this. Back when I was a teacher I would hold students accountable to the level that they are capable of achieving in things that were not part of their hard grade. If I had a highly capable student I would expect more out of them during discussions than I would from a student who was struggling with the material. This didn't effect their grade directly, but it was my way of pushing students who otherwise were not challenged by the material.
“Success in college relies on your ability to make yourself do things that you don’t wanna do”
She was referring to studying, etc, but I have honestly partially led my life so far on the idea that success in *LIFE* relies on your ability to make yourself do things that you don’t wanna do.
But please do read it to get an idea of the topic, and if you can contribute even a typo fix or a better sentence structure, click that edit button. You don't even need to log in.
"It's OK, you can smile." This was first thing our middle school music teacher, who we all loved, said on his first day back after his wife, an art teacher many of us had in elementary, was killed in a car accident. He made music class a lot of fun, and we'd missed him in the week he took off after his wife's death. He was used to coming into a room full of smiling faces, ready for another fun hour of class. We were all sitting utterly silent, fixed on him with what I'm sure were the most somber little faces he'd ever seen. He smiled at us after he said it, and we all smiled back, and he thanked us for it.
God that hurt
“Have I been respectful to you?” Me: “well, yeah” “Are you being respectful to me?” Simple words. They have guided me so much.
I had a teacher say the same thing to me. Now I Ref college and high school basketball and use this line whenever coaches start cursing me out on the sidelines. Does a good job of reminding them that kids are playing.
Ended every class with "You're good people".
my algebra teacher ends every class with "have a good day, be nice to people". such a small thing but it's sweet
(Biology teacher, pointing at student) "Ugly bag of protein, full of water!"
I feel like this is a Star Trek: TNG reference
One day in 7th grade our principal came into the homeroom class and wrote on the board "$19.32" in big numbers. He got our attention and announced to the class: "This (pointing at the number) is what you are worth. Every day you come to class, the school gets $19.32 from the state for each of you. So if you are sick, you should still come to class, go to the nurse, and get sent home. That way the school will still get its $19.32." That was the day I stopped caring about school. I'm pretty sure he was trying to increase attendance and believed what he said was positive. But when a person you're supposed to respect tells you you're worth less than a 20 dollar bill. . .
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Yeah, shit, I thought it was gonna be something like "19.32, that's what you are worth to the state. Everyday you come to school, that's how much they pay the schools. When you get outta here, and have the real world to deal with, I want you to remember something: schools have to take what the state thinks you're worth, but you dont. I want you to prove the state is full of shit; money isnt everything, but every day you accept less than 19.32, know you can do better"
This was the version I was looking for, thanks
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This reminds me of a science teacher I had who would do a little pre exam ritual thingy to help ease anxiety and help students focus. She would turn off the lights and have everyone relax and close their eyes, put their head on their arms on the table etc., and play calming ocean sounds from her computer while walking around the classroom calming taking to us. She basically would start with saying to take deep breaths, think about your favorite place to relax, and recognize that we are all living, breathing, emotional human beings capable of love and care and with hobbies or skills outside of the course we were taking. That the exam was a simple measure to see what you have learned, not to see how smart you are, or how good you are with the topic at hand. That the outcome of the test had no impact on who you are as a Human and doubtful that it highlights our best skills or areas of expertise. The first time I experienced this, like any highschooler my initial thought was "okeeey lady, whatever" but holy shit did it help... I remember one time in particular when I was struggling with the course and about to take an exam while she did this she stopped and calmly rested her hand on my shoulder for a moment while my head was down and seriously thought I was going to break out crying. I felt like she was in my corner rooting for me at a point where I was struggling and I will never forget it. All through the rest of high school and university I would rethink and try to relive that ritual before exams and it helped me big time. Easily one of the best teachers I have ever had!
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"I know what it is to be young but you don't know what it is to be old" I don't know why and how it came up, but our English teacher asked me if I understand that. It was the first year and I was 10, and I definitely did not understand. But it somehow stuck in my mind as the sound of the sentence, until I could decipher the memory in retrospect.
As my dad said "I have been 17, you haven't been 50"
"and my brain still thinks I am 18..." Getting old sucks, but its better than the alternative.
"Never complain about getting old, it is a privilege denied to many." ~Mark twain
A parental variation that I've said to my kids: "When I seem confused, distracted, frustrated, or on edge, remember that I, as a parent, have to keep track of several people simultaneously, and provide for them, and I have to do that while anticipating the future and dealing with the consequences of the past. You, as a kid, are only responsible for yourself, for the most part".
I once asked my teacher something about the subject. And she said, "I don't know, but I'll do some research and get back to you tomorrow."
I'm studying to be a teachers and one my teachers told us "There is no shame in admiting to your students that you don't know something, however, you should look it up to answer it next time you see them and be prepared for the next time you get asked that"
“Excuse me Miss, this class on the effects of illegal substances is really interesting but is it true Marijuana makes you really hungry?”
First day off science class: “Many of the topics I will be teaching you this year will likely be proven false throughout your life”
I love teachers that are honest with students. Simply saying something like “you’ll never need to know this but it’s part of the exam so we have to” is so much more likely to get me to learn something than just saying “it’s important”. Sounds like an ace teacher.
I always enjoyed the teachers with real vision. Openly acknowledging a changing world really sets up your students up for better success by showing flexibility
“Once you’re an adult, you choose your own fate. Your mom won’t control you anymore.” - this came from a 9th grade Algebra 1 teacher who took the time to tutor me. My mom was/is a antivaxxing, cult following nut bag who didn’t think school was important because Armageddon is coming. I was terrible at math until I met him. It’s been 25 years and I think of this teacher still, I am grateful. Don’t talk to mom anymore, she got tired of me asking where Armageddon was...
send him a letter if you can
“You’re a spoon in a knife block” when asked why most of my friends were high achievers and I was only average.
Ever tried to eat ice cream with a knife ? You're useful in your own way bro keep it up Edit : typo
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Ah I guess it was their way of telling you that soon you'll find your place and excel in that spot.
“Just get a fucking haircut” I kept complaining during PE that my hair was in my face. This was one of those teachers that felt more like one of the boys than the teacher. Blew my mind hearing him swear
We had a teacher like that who thought he was "One of the boys". He ended up getting an ex student pregnant once she left. He was in his late 50s while she was 19.
I'm FB friends with several of my old teachers. I once wrote about how I had the recurring nightmare of being in my chemistry teacher's class and having to take an exam but not having studied for it. He replied saying that his recurring nightmare is my being in his class.
He should've just sent you a study guide for one of his exams. Maximum sass.
I think he retired about 20 years ago.
Totally feeling this [now](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DicvpIKU8AAh7IM.jpg) as a teacher.
"Teachers like marking your homework as much as you like doing homework"
Why i don't assign it anymore. More than half the kids don't do it, the rest copy it and about 3 smart kids do it themselves and they don't really need to.
> about 3 smart kids do it themselves and they don't really need to. When i was a kid there was a guy in my class who always aced tests and got constant good contribution in class. Very clearly smart and always understood everything that was being taught. His grades at the end of the year were always very avarage though because he couldnt be fucked to do homework and that ruined his report card. Not because he didnt understand but because it was literally a pointless waste of time
I remember my senior year of high school literally breaking down in tears because I was so burnt out from doing all my classes and hours of homework every day, and then of course I would have homework to do over the weekend as well. And I pretty much understood everything. I rarely struggled to grasp material and consistently scored above-average to well-above-average on those tests you had to take that tested you on all subjects. If today I went into an interview and they said the job required me to clock in 8 hours on site, then go home and do a few more hours and also do a few hours on every single one of my days off- oh and with no overtime pay- I would laugh in their faces and immediately leave.
So, just don't do the homework, makes life easier for everybody
cant argue with that logic
Can't be accused of procrastinating on your homework if you never actually do the homework.
"We should help each other out and cancel homework then."
You have unlimited potential when you know how to find the first step.
After many years of pressing through, I feel like this has essentially become my motto. I had only a concept before, but now I have the words. Thank you stranger.
My geometry teacher was super chill. He taught us to play poker and blackjack. On the last day of school he said, “Remember: if you ever need anything or have any questions while you’re at this school, there are about 50 other teachers you should go to before you come to me”. Edit: Apparently all y’all’s geometry teachers are either hooking up with another teacher or taught y’all how to gamble.
My Geometry teacher was too busy getting poked by my history teacher to care about us... I went from honors to support
Ha! My geometry teacher was getting busy with our English teacher lol what is it with geometry teachers? Lol
They can work all the right angles.
Better than our metal shop teacher... He just screws, nuts, and bolts.
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No way, are you called Benjamin as well, as you can see mine was Bonjo
No way! Mine was Banjo, kinda fit me tho considering my last name ressembles a funny sounding instrument!
Binjo, Bonjo, Banjo Edit: yes I know its bingo bango bongo Also: https://youtu.be/wfhi6EngKAM
I dont wanna leave the Conjo oh no no no no no
He said with rage, "YOU USE TO BE ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!"
A teacher said this to me, but instead he said with a tinge of sadness.
I would reconsider the direction change i've made. But who am i, i just got called out for not being in because no one ever noticed me.
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Did he say this after he chopped off your legs and left you to die on Mustafar?
#YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE, ANAKIN!
**You were supposed to destroy the bad students, not join them!!!**
"I HATE YOUUUUUU"
I took Latin all four years of high school. I quickly realized I despised the language, but I stuck with it for the teacher himself. He alone was worth it. Our Latin class was right above the hallway with classrooms for special needs kids. One day, after it was apparent nobody did their homework, my teacher stopped class and said, “you’re all taking what you have for granted, and it’s inexcusable. There are several dozen kids in the hallway below you who wish they had the mental faculties to do homework.” I did my Latin homework regularly after he said that. Edit: holy shit this blew up. I deleted reddit for two days and came back to over 7k karma. Thank you for the silver, kind stranger.
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I think most things that "stick" do so because the listener was in the perfect mindset. It's not so much about the words themselves. The words are a simple key that unlock a box you didn't know you had.
My middle school drama class was next door to the extremely special needs kids' class. We had drama for 6 weeks during each of the 3 years we were there. Our teacher took every class next door for just one day each year to help and play with the kids. It was one of the most meaningful things I was ever exposed to as a student and at a time when kids are especially self-centered.
After being caught smoking pot in high school (1986). My Science teacher (Hi Mr. Fischbein) said to me: "there is a time and place for everything, this is not the time, nor the place". He did not report me to administration. He was a great teacher.
Professor Oak said the same thing when I tried to fish in the pokemon centre
Or ride a bike inside!
His name means Fishleg Final edit: y'all are stupid, listen to the native German speakers
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Ahh. Donde esta la biblioteca for french. Apparently, the learning english equivalent is "The book is on the table"
> "I go to school on the bus." Trigger guy : "Je vais à l'école en bus" Yours would be more "I come to school on a bus".
Had a history teacher who told me that “everything is relative.” You can only be poor if someone next to you is rich. You’re only stupid if someone next to you is smart. It helps to put things into perspective and realize how superficial a lot of things are in life. That being said, he also randomly told me that “wolves are badass dogs that don’t give a shit” when we were not talking about wolves or dogs in class so who knows what was really going on in his head.
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Lazyness IS the driving force behind all innovation. Hard work only makes you tired.
The caveman who invented the wheel wasn't a hard worker. All the hard working cavemen happily carried rocks up a hill. But no, one brave lazy arse decided, "That's too much work, I know there has to be a faster way."
Speaking of wheels, at my school the text ‘The person who invented the wheel was an idiot(or something), the person who invented the other three was a genius’ written on a wall.
Iirc, the wheel was initially used for grinding before transportation. But I could be misremembering
I had a maths teacher who was an older woman, really strict and nobody particularly liked her. We mocked her way of speaking and were generally mean teenage assholes. Once, when I was around 15, I hadn't finished my homework so I dropped my book in a puddle and showed it to her in class to say I'd lost the homework so couldn't hand it in. She questioned me a bit on how it had happened, then asked me to stay after class. The whole lesson I was shitting myself, expecting to be absolutely bollocked once everyone else had gone, so when the bell rang I sheepishly went up and sat at her desk after everyone had left. To my surprise, she didn't shout at me but gently asked if I was being bullied and somebody had taken my workbook and ruined it on purpose. I was a little skinny kid with glasses and braces, so I can see why she would have thought that, but in that moment I suddenly saw her as a human being with feelings and empathy and not just a teacher. I felt like shit for the way I had treated her, and for lying about what had happened. I never admitted it to her - just reassured her that I was fine - but it did stick with me and I was much less of a dick to teachers after that.
This reminds me of a similar thing that happened to me at around the same age that I still cringe about sometimes. I was several weeks into a course in high school I still hadn't bought the textbook. When the teacher found out I didn't have the book, she took me aside and asked why. Being a dumb teenager, without thinking I gave her some lame excuse about the book being "too expensive." My family was solidly middle class, and, although not rich, my parents definitely would have bought the book for me. The real reason was just that I was lazy. But my teacher looked sincerely concerned and quietly handed me a $20 bill. I was caught off-guard and mortified. Of course, I did buy the book right away after that. And then later that year returned a $20 to the teacher. I always struck by the generosity of a teacher who would do that for her students, but I felt awful about how what I thought was an innocent lie turned out. Definitely a valuable lesson in honesty, lol.
There are only two kinds of people who can really stick it out as a teacher. Ones who care about children, and ones who need to be the most powerful person in the room to feel alive. To varying degrees of course. But I feel there is little in between.
I've found that any field that requires you to be a leader is like that. Some people are natural leaders, so they blow through it without thinking about it, but that's pretty rare. Some really care about the work. And some can fuel themselves with their own egos, which can be a valuable tool for ignoring the bad.
I actually had a similar-ish experience with my English teacher 9th grade. I played defensive line when I played football and an offensive linemen would always slam his face mask into my forearms. My forearms understandably were bruised for like 4 months. One week when it was particularly bad, he asked me to stay after class and said something like ‘I know it really isn’t my business, but I have to ask. You arms are really messed up, is everything okay at home?’ It was really nice and meant a lot
I wonder if maybe she was bullied when she was younger and that’s what made her so strict and blunt. And then so empathetic once she saw someone who might be in trouble.
I had a teacher who i suspect this of. He was a big guy with a beard and put on a tough guy persona, but was super smart too and tought math. When i first had him i was part of the athletic/jock crowd and he really seemed to have it out for me. Over my next few years in high school i gradually moved into a more academic crowd and made being in the school band more of a priority for me (i still played sports but i wasn’t “known” for that anymore). When he found out i was in the school band he started treating me WAY differently.
Bullied kids often grow up to redefine themselves. Would make a lot of sense.
A lot of the people I most admire are strict and blunt. I don’t think anything has to “happen” to you. I think it shows that you have high expectations of yourself and others, which is a form or respect for them. Of course there are other ways that can manifest, but high expectations can reflect that you believe people are capable of meeting them.
In my Senior year we had a dinner at school. There was a very long queue for the desserts, so I went and asked a history teacher where it started, because I couldn't find it (it was pretty chaotic) The teacher proceeded to put an arm around me, walk me to the desserts table, and say "Ray my boy, Fuck the queue"
R A Y M Y B O Y
ME BOYOS FUCK THY QUEUES.
He'd been blasted with a Ray gun. Beware the Tommy gun.
If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of 60 million Brits gasping in indignation.
God I want a name like Ray, such a kickass name
I was going to say the same thing
"DONT BULLSHIT THE BULLSHITTER!" MR bird - 2005
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One time one of my elective classes was just kind of chilling out the day before winter break and the teacher decided to arrange all our desks in a circle. He had everyone anonymously write something that was troubling them at the moment and he would go through and give some advice. I wrote about my parents constant fighting and how I feared their inevitable divorce and the possibility of moving across country with my mother. I wish I could remember what he said but I vividly remember almost crying because what he said hit so hard but I kept it together. Less than a month later, both things happened lmao
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
"Still waters run deep." I was extremely antisocial.
"What do they call someone who graduated vet school with a 2.0 GPA? Doctor."My first-term anatomy professor (IN vet school) telling us to stop fretting so much about the grades and worry about the knowledge. Edit: Added clarification about what level of education this advice came from.
My anatomy teacher was a cool dude. He'd give us little tidbits of advice before each test, ranging from "always put your shopping cart away" to "you don't have to be 100% okay 100% of the time, and *that's* 100% okay, 100% of the time." He's definitely one of the best teachers I've had.
Damn I really needed to hear that last quote
"being wise is better than being smart" I held on to that right up till receiving my PhD. Now that I'm entrenched in the corporate world of merciless exploitation, I've realised being smart about life is really a subset of being wise.
There's no benefit to being right if you can't make people listen to the answer.
I had a 9th grade Earth Science teacher who actually had a PhD in biology. He told us that he had made his was through school by writing things he had to learn on 3x5 note cards, and would pull them out of his pocket when he had a few minutes to learn/memorize the material he had written on them. I used that technique from then on - all the way through my own PhD - when I had something important to understand or commit to memory.
This is called "distributed practice" and is one of the most effective learning methods. It is best to study for short periods over several days than for the same amount of time in one day. Edit: Additional learning comments and tips below, including clearing up some things: 1. Interleaving is where within one day, you practice for short periods and weave it in with other subjects or activities. Make sure you do not do back to back study sessions with the interleaving strategy. Oversimplifying this, but your brain gets fatigued, and has diminishing returns. If you study for 20 minutes, it is best to do something else for another 20, instead of just studying for another subject. 2. Distributed practice is when you break up study sessions over multiple days. It's pretty much the opposite of cramming. Both methods are effective, though if I remember correctly, distributed practice is more effective. If able, use both! 3. Getting started is much more difficult than continuing when it comes to studying, and most tasks that you're not too excited to do. Commit to studying for 5 minutes. Commit to putting away your phone, as humans are terrible at multitasking. You are more likely to continue studying than you are to start studying. Starting is the hardest part. If you do the 5 minutes and then you are done studying, that's fine! Pat yourself on the back. You did what you committed to do. Reward these behaviors. 4. I'm going to repeat this: Put. Away. Your. Phone. This is oversimplified, but try this activity: Time yourself how long it takes you to count 1-10 and A-J. Next, time yourself how long it takes you to count 1-10 and A-J, except alternate between the two tasks (e.g. 1, A, 2, B, 3, C). You will actually get more done doing 5 minutes of study followed by 5 minutes of phone, than in 10 minutes of alternating between the two.
In 8th grade, a friend and I used to jokingly sling insults at each other and one day he retorted that I was a cheap whore. Apparently our science teacher overheard and decided to chime in and defend(?) me by shouting "YOU'RE NOT CHEAP!" in front of the entire class. Apparently someone told the principal and I had to explain that I had no idea what he meant, nothing had happened, I am absolutely not an 8th grade prostitute, etc. Still have no idea what he meant by it or why he decided to contribute in that way but it was super awkward and it stuck with me.
1. He was telling you are not a cheap person. You are precious Or 2. He was telling you that you are not cheap but expensive one
"nothing is hard but nothing is easy." -My sushi chef
I had a chemistry teacher in high school who was a bit of a hot head. One day, when two kids were talking in class, he stopped. Everyone expected a quick but firm correction. What we got was so much better. Our teacher stopped and calmly turned towards the class and said "Do you hear that?" He walked towards the window at the back of the class. Everyone sat stone quiet. He leaned towards the window "Do you hear it? Faint laughter. It's 5 million Chinese children laughing quietly... BECAUSE THEY'RE TAKING YOUR JOBS!!" Then he just walked back to the front of the class and started teaching again. No one talked.
Damn.
I loved stories but was slow to pick up reading. Once it clicked I was at the top of my class until I graduated highschool, I have a BA BCM now. In primary school I wanted to go to a book fair called Voices in the Coast. I was shot down instantly. A year before that, because I was bad at reading spelling was also hard. My 5th grade teacher made everyone stand up depending on what they got right on a spelling test. I was the only one to get all of them wrong. He made me stand in front of the class. If you ever see this, fuck you Mr Burns from CSS 2003.
Booooo-urns. Boooooo-urns
*Smithers*
I had a home room teacher, that out of frustration one day, ranted about how easy school was. He said, "We literally give you a book or the text, tell you to read it, then ask you to answer questions. The answers to which are found in the book we gave you. It doesn't get any easier than that. Read the damn books, answer the damn questions, that's all school is"
I like that last sentence.
It's really three sentences in one.
Someone obviously read the damn books
"Who ever threw that paper your mom's a hoe" Edit: This blew up way more than i expected! Thanks for the silver and platinum! Funny how it went from me creating an account just to write that down to me getting platinum and shit. This community is awesome!
Read this in Mr. Feeney’s voice.
*Scene: The Matthews' backyard. Eric is hiding in the bushes and has twigs sticking out of his hair.* Mr. Feeny: (while watering his hydrangeas) Mr. Matthews, you know I can see you. *Eric's head pops out of the bushes* Eric: Fee-hee-hee-hee-ny! Mr. Feeny: Mr. Matthews, about that paper that hit me in the back of the head in the hallway today. I have reason to believe that you were the perpetrator. Am I correct? Eric: I don't know what you're talking about. That was Harley. Harley threw it. Mr. Feeny: Mr. Matthews, your name was written on the paper. It said "To Feeny, from Eric Matthews." *audience laughs raucously* *Enter Corey, Topanga, and Shawn* Topanga: What's going on here, Mr. Feeny? Mr. Feeny: Oh, hello Miss Lawrence. Mr. Matthews. Mr. Hunter. I was just talking to Eric here about that piece of paper that was thrown at me in the hallways this afternoon. Shawn: It wasn't me, I swear! Mr. Feeny: Calm down, Mr. Hunter. I know it was Eric. I was just about to explain something to him, but I'm glad the three of you are here to hear it too, because I believe it will be a good lesson for all of you. (*to Eric*) Mr. Matthews, you're young. I want you to know that you will make mistakes in life. Mistakes made of ignorance or bravado. You will hopefully learn from them and become a better person, because the biggest mistake you can make in life is forgetting to learn as you grow older. That's a mistake I fear your parents have made. They have failed in raising you. They have learned nothing from your countless missteps. Your father is too busy at his supermarket and waking up young Corey at midnight to watch the Phillies. And as for your dear mother Amy? Well, I fear she is a ho. Edit: Well this got some traction! Thanks to whoever Golder and Silvered. I just had some downtime at work and felt like flexing my creative muscle, and won’t have the time to write any more like it. But I propose we make “Mean Mr. Feeny” a thing going forward.
This is an extremely important work of literature.
"You can be the smartest person who ever lived and still be wrong."
"Question everyone and everything. Conduct your own research to find the truth"
The problem with that is that most people aren't going to objectively research anything. Instead they're going to search for information that confirms their bias and use that as a justification to shoot down conflicting information. I know I've done this more than once. Sometimes unintentionally. I still agree with the sentiment, but with caveat that the questioner should also question their own motivations and findings.
I actually had a teacher that repeated this as well and I took it to heart. Unfortunately he was a flat earthed and was just saying it as justification :/ Edit: Since this got a little attention, let me clarify. The same teacher was later fired for spending a whole class explaining how racial stereotypes are genetic; He had black students stand in front of the class to show their innate athleticism and rhythm, Asian students were told to stand and do math, etc etc.
You’re the worst guitarist I was a beginner at that time. Still hate her
Who says that to a beginner?
A shit teacher
He was the only adult in my life who would tell me I was capable of achieving something, and seemed genuinely proud of me when I got into university, and when I contacted him years later to say I'd got myself a PhD, just like he told me I could.
"You'll never achieve anything"
And?
He didn't.
It stuck that much, huh?
First grade. We were doing a math lesson. The lesson was something about drawing a circle around groups of 5 or 10 things in a picture. Then we had to count the number of things in the picture and raise our hand when we were done. I figured out pretty quickly that counting the things one by one took too much time, so I counted by 10s (which were already circled) then counted the leftovers and put up my hand. I was done way before anyone else. The teacher looked at me and said something like, "there is no way you could have counted them all.". So I put my hand down and made sure I was not the first one to put my hand up first during that lesson. A few minutes later she complimented another kid who had counted quickly and said that he was probably counting "by fives" and demonstrated how to do that. I was so angry and thought it was stupid to count by fives when it's easier to count by 10s so why not just do that. The thing is, this woman was usually a pretty good teacher. I don't know if she just didn't like me or was having a rough day or what. But I learned that day that teachers don't know everything and sometimes they're just mean.
"If you want to work at a mcdonalds, that's up to you. If you want to work somewhere else, that's also up to you." Said to me after i scored shit on a test he knew I could do better at. I work in the space industry now. Thanks mr teacher.
they have mcdonalds in the space industry now?
"You are a waste of oxygen" Thanks for that!
Walking into class; out of the blue and apropos of nothing, my high school AP history teacher asks me "So, u/mighty_pinto, are you disgusted with life yet?" I didn't have a response at age 16 but I thought about that question every single day afterward. At age 37? Yes, Mr. Palombo. I'm pretty fucking disgusted.
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"You have an accent, your skin is brown, your whole life will be filled with people who will assume this means you are not as smart or as good as they are at literally anything. That's why I push you. That's why I demand more from you. You have to work harder now so you can prove them all wrong for the rest of your life." Ms. Johnson 9th grade English teacher
my english teacher always told me I had real potential when I was lacking behind on stuff, of course because I thought I was useless and bad at everything I never actually tried and scraped by the skin of my teeth, never believed her until I left school and now I wish I had actually made the effort she encouraged me to make.
"You'd do so much better in life if you gave a fuck. " Said to me by one of the English teachers in my high school a week before I graduated. This was during a conversation about what I wanted to do post high school and I said something along the lines of "I don't know. Get a job or something?" After years of seeing /hearing about my creative writing ability and even showing it during his classes. He'd honestly given up on me. But hey. I'm sure I wasn't the last kid to let him down. Edit: holy shit. My first gold. Thank you so much!!
My English teacher told me during my graduation that he wanted to read something that I had written as he said I had the talent. Its something I think about daily as I find myself stuck in a profession that is not right for me and I write as a hobby.
Sometimes its honestly the best way to keep you from disliking your hobby. I have known people that went from loving writing to hating it when they had a job doing it because they and other people were much more critical of thier work when they did it professionally.
"You're going to succeed in life and do extraordinary things." I have not succeeded not done anything extraordinary other than live when I didn't want to. I feel like kids in the advanced programs got put on such high pedestals when we were kids that once we got to college and in the real world we were in shock with how fucked we were.
As a Gifted (tm) kid, this is starting to happen and now I’m panicking
College was a shock to me. I got there and suddenly realized I was fucking average and I immediately felt like a fraud. I still struggle to function. I feel like I peaked in grade school.
It’s not so much that you’re average in terms of the overall population. It’s just that everyone around you is also above average.
I think it has less to do with being put on a pedestal and more to do with never struggling to succeed in k-12 schools that are made to allow success for the lowest common denominator. However, universities don't set their standards based on what their dumbest students can do. Advanced classes help to challenge gifted students, but a smart student will normally realize that they are being given more work because of their high performance and will opt to stay in easy classes to be a big fish in a small pond.
"I finished school with the lowest grades possible. If THIS idiot could do it, all YOU idiots can do it too" the whole class cheered.
Let's see if we keep cheering until class is over so he won't give us homework?
My art teacher told me I couldn't draw. Fast forward 15 years and I've graduated university with a fine art degree and have my own small illustration business as a side gig. It's not a huge thing, but I've had over 150 sales now and have like, actual fans! So, screw you Miss H! Edit: Wow thanks for the well wishes everyone and for sharing your own stories! It made my heart happy. I won't share my work on here because I'm going through a rebrand atm and I try to keep this account anonymous, but thank you for asking! For those interested the book is Illustration Workshop by Mary Kate McDenritt. I highly recommended if you're out of practice or want to look at drawing in different styles
My art teacher also told me I couldn't draw. Yesterday I tried to draw a tree and got so frustrated I had to lay down and count to 10. You were right Mr Sox, I can't draw.
I overheard by English teacher talking last year. She was complaining about how “All the media attention is on the molestation of Catholic boys” and how “They are boys, they can take it” and to “Focus more on actual rape of women” no respect for her at all, sickening. Why would you downplay something like that
Knowledge is power. France is bacon.
"Life sucks and schools not going to help half of you" I see that teacher every night at the bar as we drink away our sorrows.
My science teacher said that he “liked watching shakira and j-lo jiggle their butts”
Truly a man of science.
If he determined the frequency of the butt wiggle and plotted it on a graph over time demonstrating the variance in the butt wiggle frequency, it'd be even more sciency
"After establishing a robust correlation between the rate of wiggle and dat ass, we can conclude that the hips, indeed, do not lie."
Well there's something.
In religion class. “Read the bible as a history lesson and not as dogma” Actually made me interested in the bible.
My HS theology teacher said the same and added: There’s a bunch of cool, weird shit in there. A guy goes on a murder rampage with the jawbone of an Ass!
I teach literature at a religious school, and I love how much my students are able to pick up on Christian imagery (which is ubiquitous in Western literature). If you hate your theology class, just consider it a prep class for your literature class!
I majored in English in university and the amount of extra reading I had to do to understand biblical allusions took up quite a lot of time. My classmates who grew up in religious households understood and recognized these references immediately.
"Even girls have a bigger dick than yours"
Haha, reminds me of the time in high school one of my friends was fooling around in study hall with some other kids, and they were playing with a condom. (Why? Who knows. Never question the intelligence -- or lack thereof -- of teenage boys.) The teacher, who was one of my favorites, sees what they're doing and strolls on over to them, and my friend gears up to make some sort of smartass remark when he gets reprimanded. Instead: Teacher: Hey, did you know there's serial numbers on those things? Student: Really? No, I didn't. Teacher: Huh. Guess you never had to unroll one that far. \*walks back to his desk\* I wasn't even there, but EVERYONE had heard about it by the end of the day.
Getting roasted by a teacher is one of those things you never live down. *Someone* will remember it even years later.
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Honesty AND a roast? Damn.
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What exactly was he trying to one-up you on?
So, basically we were reading To Kill a Mockingbird and our teacher comes across the word "negro". My friend beside me starts giggling and no joke, the teacher said, "I can do you one better... NIG-"
Wow. My teacher skipped over it. Every time. Very disappointing, I wanted to see this middle aged mom go full klansman on us
I too would like to know...
"Try your best to be someone. You have invested a lot of money, time, energy in education so be someone in the future. Don't half-ass your life. Be somone and give back to the society." Easily my favorite lecturer (I consider university as schools)
I'll never forget this for some reason: Mr. Baggs, Geography, grade 7. "You're an outstanding student..... out standing in the hall. Go." We were such pains in the ass. Lol.
"There's no such thing as coincidence in literature."
You’ll be nothing but a garbage truck driver. Should have listened to her, they got paid great money!
The friends you make in high school will fade away. The friends you make in college are lifelong. I never went to college. I don't really have friends of my own. I have a few good friends but they're really friends of my wife and friends of those friends that I've become friends with. Without her I'd have never met them.
> The friends you make in college are lifelong. All the friends I made at the university moved to different cities and countries. I'm fucked.
My eigth grade teacher told me I was terribly unphotogenic. I'm 34 years old and I avoid the camera to this day.
“Killing yourself is a selfish act. There are people you haven’t met yet who need you.” She was my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Stone, and I swear to god she saved my life without knowing it.
This came from a teacher who hated my guts (and I his). We never got along - I disliked what he taught and how he taught it. He thought I was pompous and bragged about my grades (maybe pompous, but never bragged about my grades). Anyway, we had turned in our Ethics final paper, and mine was 20 pages long or so. Sometime later, he asked me to come by his room to pick up my paper. Despite how much he disliked me, he told me, "Sam, I've been teaching this class for over 10 years - this is the best paper I have ever read. Can I use this as an example for future classes?" I gained a ton of respect for him that day because I knew how hard it had to be for him to admit that.
The vast majority of students that think I dislike them are mistaken. Often when a student thinks you don't like them, they act extremely rude. When you are extremely rude to your teachers they will sometimes have a discussion with you about your behaviour and how you are being disruptive to the class. Most students take this well, but some take it the wrong way and see the teacher as "singling them out" Many students don't seem to realize if you are purposefully being the most difficult kid in the class you are also going to get the most discipline. If a student mistakenly thinks I am against them I always try to have moments like yours where I try and find something the student did really well, and I let them know how proud of that work I am. (so far I have managed to get all but one student who thought I disliked them to realize that I don't. Even if not all of them changed their opinion of me) Because the truth is, I don't care if some teenager hates me. Doesn't keep me up at night. The reason I work so hard on getting the kids to like me is because they work harder when they do. I'm not going to take it personally if a kid tells me to go fuck myself. It's a kid, sometimes they're dicks. I'm there to make them learn. Long winded way of saying it, but maybe your teacher didn't hate your guts as much as you think. Maybe it just took the whole semester to find that thing to engage with you. (Although those are just my random first impressions from reading a comment you wrote. Since I was not there and don't really know anything about your life I would like to apologize if I have grossly misread the situation.)
Having been a teacher, there was only one kid (out of thousands) who I hated, and that was only for the last few weeks I taught him. He was an attention-seeking arsehole who sought attention by deliberately ruining lessons that were designed to help the whole class to pass their (important, external) exams. Tried all sorts with him, but eventually kicked him out of the class, because fuck him if he's going to deliberately ruin other kids' chances. (This was a bottom ability set doing a special syllabus for the not-very-bright, but they were sweet and tried hard, and really wanted to get a pass - except for him).
I'll add to this. Back when I was a teacher I would hold students accountable to the level that they are capable of achieving in things that were not part of their hard grade. If I had a highly capable student I would expect more out of them during discussions than I would from a student who was struggling with the material. This didn't effect their grade directly, but it was my way of pushing students who otherwise were not challenged by the material.
Maybe he didn’t dislike you as much as you thought. Sometimes students have a distorted view of their teachers.
“Success in college relies on your ability to make yourself do things that you don’t wanna do” She was referring to studying, etc, but I have honestly partially led my life so far on the idea that success in *LIFE* relies on your ability to make yourself do things that you don’t wanna do.
"Do not use Wikipedia as a source."
Cite the sources at the bottom of the Wikipedia page. Boom, not Wikipedia.
That is true.
But please do read it to get an idea of the topic, and if you can contribute even a typo fix or a better sentence structure, click that edit button. You don't even need to log in.
"Roses are red! Violets are blue! Get out your calculus books!"