Can you describe the worst teacher you ever had?

In My Humble Opinion
1

There is another thread on this board that asks about the worst female you ever knew.

I’d like to ask something a little different. I’d like to ask about the worst teacher you ever had? You should not spell out their real name. It does not matter whether they are male or female. But …

I’d like to ask you how old you were when you had this teacher or alternatively, what grade did they teach and how long did they teach in that school that you were aware of? Did they ever get caught and fired or suffer any other kind of consequences? I’d also like to ask what they did that causes you to think they were the worst and did anyone ever try to take any recourse against them?

By “what they did”, I’d like to include actions that were both allowable by the school and that were not allowable. If you ever took any vengeance against them yourself, I’d like to hear what it was. But be careful that you don’t write anything that will get you into trouble - especially not any legal trouble.

Perhaps I can begin by telling you about my worst ever teacher. The following is not exactly an accurate representation of the truth. But it is pretty damn close. Close enough to satisfy me.

The OP did not say whether the person had to be famous or not. The worst human being I ever encountered in my life was my 2nd grade teacher Miss Fishbitch. (not exactly her real name). You would have a great deal of trouble believing what she used to do to her students. She was ubelievably cruel to us. She tortured us in both a physical and emotional ways. We were 7 years old at the time. I’m quite certain there are several seriously damaged people walking around today due to the way she treated us.

Here are a couple of examples. Our schoolyard used to be divided into a boys section and a girls section. Every time she caught a boy in the girls section, she would force him to wear a skirt and all the kids would point and laugh at him while he cried his eyes out. This lasted for about 15 or 20 minutes. No boy ever did it twice and it never happened to me. But I’m certain that it created some very damaged people. I remember that one boy peed his pants during the pointing and laughing.

Another example: There was one kid in our class who had great difficulty completing his homework. I don’t know why. But it could easily have been some reason other than laziness or obstinance. Many times during the school year she would force him to stand at the front of the class and berate him for not having done his homework. She would call him names like “stupid” and “lazy” and the entire class would laugh at him. She laughed along with them.

It seemed like she hated children and took every opportunity to belittle them and smack them around (this was in the 50s and we never knew we had any recourse).

When I was in my late 20s, I got a job in another city and came back to the small town where she lived and I drove by her house at 3a.m. and had in my hands, a slingshot and a few pebbles.

I don’t think I should say exactly what I did. But, I will tell you that it left me feeling very, very satisfied. Every time I think of Miss FishBitch today, I get a great big smile on my face and imagine what she would have felt when she saw what happened to her big picture window. I’m guessing that she would have spent some serious money installing some kind of alarm and she would have felt some real trepidation as to when the next show might drop. I wonder if she ever figured why someone did that or who it was. But she was just so mean and nasty to so many young children that I seriously doubt if she ever figured out who which one would have come back to seek vengeance on her.

Vengeance. Is it right or is it wrong? I have no answer to that. But it sure felt real good to me. Very, very sweet! If anyone deserved it, it was her. She was the worst human being I ever did encounter in my entire life.

Honest!

2

Second grade teacher, a woman.
She played favorites, her pets could do no wrong, everybody else could do no right.

High School Algebra II teacher. The first day of class he surveyed the classroom, said how disappointed he was to see girls in the class. He made it very clear from day one the we had no business being in his class, that he would not allow us to take his attention away from the boys. The boys were going to graduate and get jobs and need the education, all we girls would do is grow up, get married and have babies.
He refused to call on girls, he refused to answer our questions, it was like we didn’t exist, we were a waste of space and time.
We all just dealt with the jerk, probably pissed him off that we all did well in his class.
It was the 70s, I don’t know if it was legal or not.

3

I’d like to correct some mistakes in my post.

I meant “shoe might drop” - not “show” might drop.

Also, the kid who couldn’t ever seem to complete his homework might well have suffered from some kind of medical problem like autism or that condition where people can’t read properly cuz they interchange letters.

He never spoke hardly at all. So it was very difficult to know just what kind of problem he had.

But he did cry when she put him at the front of the class and called him names. None of us knew any better than to not laugh at him when she did. I often wonder why that was.

I also get a good feeling when I think that she might well have spent a lot of money installing an alarm that never rang - that never was of any value to her because nothing else like that ever happened again.

Many of you will think it was really cruel for me to have done what I did. But I would have been happy to have done much worse to her. I know that it wasn’t the correct way to handle this problem. But I couldn’t go back in time and all the laws have some kind of time limit around 5 years. The first time I thought about using the law, it was far too late to have done any good.

4

Mine was an AP Calc teacher who I had my senior year of high school. There is no word I can use for her except “mean.” Ironically, she was also my Sunday School teacher when I was in middle school. She had a daughter my age, and a lot of us felt bad for her, because you could tell that she was embarrassed / ashamed of her mom’s behavior.

There are a lot of stories but one that always sticks out in my head was how she required a four hour “study session” every weekend with pre-assigned study groups, with the parents signing off to vouch for each student in the group. So, if you wanted to study alone (or if you didn’t need to study), you couldn’t have your parents sign the form, because the other students’ parents wouldn’t attest that you were there. The woman was a control freak and while this is a mild example, others would require lengthy backstory and explanation. Luckily, I received my acceptance letter to college in December and my parents allowed me to transfer to a different class for the Spring semester. (The fact that my parents let me do that validated all my feelings about the woman)

In the Spring semester, she assigned a paper to those who weren’t lucky enough to escape. It was to be a written report about a mathematician of the student’s choice. Students were confused about this, as it seemed tangential to Calculus, but nobody questioned her. One of my friends was the tentative valedictorian and wrote a very detailed essay, going (IMO) above and beyond her requirements. She ended up giving him a grade that dropped his semester’s grade to a “B”, causing him to be the salutatorian and the son of one of the other teacher’s in the high school to be elevated to valedictorian.

When the student questioned her, she said “I discovered that you’ve never had a ‘B,’ and I think that every student should have a ‘B’ before they go to college, to prepare them for the real world.” By the time the student could’ve complained to higher authorities, it was too late. Granted, he was already heading to a great university, but the principle of the matter still riles me up to this day.

The woman is vile.

5

God, so many horrible teachers over the years. High school was filled with teachers who should never be allowed in a school.

My first French teacher was very new and unprepared for some aggresive students. Within a few short weeks she had totally lost control of the class and we spent the rest of the year doing whatever we wanted, which wasn’t learning French. I was the quiet type, so I came to class and did homework but other students didn’t bother. The next year, French 2 was beyond my ablilities and the school couldn’t allow me to retake a class so that was the end of languages for me.

My high school physics teaches was hilariously ill informed on physics. At first, some of us tried to debate his unusual ideas about physics, the parts the book was ‘wrong’ about, but that was pointless. He wanted nothing to do with male students in any case. It was obvious early on that he didn’t like questions from troublemakers (boys.) Most girls got As automatically, guys got Bs or Cs if we did all the assignments, otherwise Ds. There was a scandel at the end of the year over the grades he gave out but enough of the students were happy (very happy) with their easy As that he just had to adjust a few upwards to avoid the issue.

6

Only one who stands out in my mind is a college professor - male, seemed near retirement age at the time (20 years ago), so he may be deceased by now.

Music History (I was a music major). All the guy did in class was read aloud from the text. Each class he would assign a couple chapters to read for the next class. And then read aloud from those chapters. The worst part about it was he took attendance each class and attendance was mandatory. I forget the penalty, but missing affected your final grade.

Totally boring, droning voice, just reading aloud. Complete horseshit. And making attendance mandatory? What a bunch of fucking bullshit.

7

I had a teacher in junior high school that was in the Vietnam War. He had experienced way more than the average person should and frequently had flashbacks. He would tell everyone to get under their desks because we were being attacked. It was odd to a bunch of teens. That wasn’t the worst part.

One day a kid in class was jotting down notes. The teacher targeted him and started screaming obscenities at him. The student, completely confused because he wasn’t doing anything wrong, sat dumbfounded. The teacher went over to the boy and threw him and his desk over. After pounding the desk a few times and still yelling, he went out into the hallway. The principal came in and taught the rest of the class. I don’t believe he came back to teach after that.

8

2nd grade, don’t remember her name, but she marked a word on my spelling test wrong when I knew I spelled it correctly. I complained multiple times, but she wouldn’t change the grade. Principle was a big deal to me at that age. I was just learning to be assertive. One day i told my mom. She told me she’d always back me up until I lied or made a fool of her, then no more. I swore to her I was right. So she makes an appointment for a consultation with the teacher after school that week. Mom said “you marked her wrong for spelling flow FLOW, but it’s correct”. Teacher said “the correct word is flow, FLOOR”. True story. Mom argued with her, politely, until the teacher said, “if your daughter had memorized her spelling list this week she would have known what the word was regardless of my pronunciation”. She refused to change the grade even though mom told her that we’d practiced the list together the night before, a regular bedtime activity in our family, and that I was just spelling what was said. Mom used it as another lesson to teach me life is not fair. That teacher was so mean to me after that. I’m sure she was angry someone had challenged her. And I was right, she had done something wrong, and she knew it. I love my mom for doing things like that for me even when it really didn’t matter that much. :slight_smile:

9

You just confirmed for me an impression of you that I have had for a while.

10

Ability,
Attitude,
Fairness,
Appearance,
For me to learn from,
etc.,

All would have different answers. Right at the end of my 1-12 years, I would have had a simple answer I guess but I am almost 71 and I can’t pick just one ‘one average.’

I am thankful that it was a a Catholic grade school & high school. At that time & place IMHO, I got a lot better education than my contemporaries so that colors my thinking on who would be the worst.

Since I was / am the primary teacher of my children, I would have to say I am the worst for them & that is reflected back on me.

11

My first lecture class at University was a Calculus I. The professor walked onto a stage in front of 300 students, said “My name is Professor LASTNAME. I haven’t had to teach first year calculus in 19 years.”

Nice to spend nearly $1000 in tuition to be one of the faceless masses being taught by someone who does NOT want to be there. The professor went on throughout the semester to prove he didn’t want to be there.

12

For one of my Economics classes, we had a TA who taught the classes supplementing the lectures, and she said, on the first day, “My name is __________, and I’ve never studied [TOPIC OF THE SEMESTER’S CLASS], so it looks like we’ll be learning it together!” in an enthusiastic voice.

Another Economics class I took had a TA who did not have a firm grasp on the English language and he would often confuse numbers when solving examples on the board (putting a “7” where there should be a “4”).

Those two classes (along with another, less notable one w/ a TA who was so timid, I was tempted to pop a paper bag behind him, just to see if he would scamper off) helped me realize that a degree in Economics probably wasn’t for me.

13

Alas my TA for that above-mentioned Calculus class was not a native English speaker. We spent an entire discussion section of class trying to convince him that a raindrop that condenses is adding volume, not losing volume. He had a negative sign where it should have been positive and was not coming up with the correct solution. :smack:

14

I had a science teacher in high school who did something similar. He would read aloud from some text. We were never allowed to see whether it was a text book or his personal notes or someone else’s personal notes.

When he read, we were expected to copy down every single word he said.

The exam consisted of questions about what he had read.

It was maddening. He could have given us photocopies of the material he read. How completely wastefull and stupid for him to read something aloud for 40 minutes at a time and for each student to then copy it down.

That kind of conduct should be absolutely prohibited today. It is absolutely senseless.

15

This is exactly the way my high school History teacher taught. I hated history for a long time because of her.

In sixth grade, there was a painfully shy boy in my class who spoke in a whispery mumble when called on. One day the teacher brought him up to the front of the class and announced that she was going to “fix Thomas”. She put pebbles in his mouth and made him recite a poem, over and over, for about 10 minutes. I can still see that boy clearly in my mind, mortified and with tears running down his cheeks.

16

I had a terrible advanced trig/calc teacher in high school. He was an arrogant, lecherous old bastard who seldom to never devoted any time to math. All he did was slobber over the girls, particularly cheerleaders, and reminisce over what a very, very awesome guy he had always been. When he devoted an entire class to his fond memories of when the school used to do an annual minstrel show, I had enough. I bullied the guidance department into switching me into a typing class, even though due to tracking my schedule should have been carved in stone.

Later on, I had a chemistry professor who flatly told us on day 1 that he considered his job research and not teaching. He was as good as his word. He never did teach. The grad assistants and chemistry majors picked up the slack as best they could. This was at a smallish state university that was by no means a hotbed of chemistry research, btw. It had only recently transitioned to university status and still primarily acted as a teacher training institution.

17

High school choir director. When he wasn’t missing class because he was passed out drunk in his office, he was missing it because he was too busy using the school’s computer to run his diet shake mix empire.

He spent the entire budget of the department on karaoke-type tapes for us to sing with (late 80’s, when that stuff was expensive) then refused to practice with them and repeatedly brought us in at the wrong point during performances.

When we started practicing without him (sheer desperation) he came in and berated the accompanist for playing around on the piano while he was making a phone call (two doors down the hall!).

Hated. Him.

18

Community College in Los Angeles

Had a Sociology Professor (male), who regaled us with tales about his years as a used care salesman and the wonderful insights this gave him about the human condition. Twice a week, three hours a class of this bullshit.

None of this appeared on a test. The tests were based solely on the text. The text was never, not once, discussed in class.

He had been there for years. May have retired from there.

Putz.

19

College statistics prof, ignorant, stupid, rude, unprepared jerk.

College calculus prof, came in to class after election day, 1980, smoking a cigar and crowing about the election.

8th grade math teacher: hit one of his students. Solid. Good, vicious, straight up smackdown. (The wretched little shit deserved it, and I was secretly overjoyed. But…no, that just isn’t right.)

20

Worse in what way? There was the guy who was the prof in a grad math course, who stated that the book was very well written (it was!) and sat down and started reading it. A delegation of students went to him and asked if we could take turns giving the lectures. He was happy to oblige and that’s the way it went. Lazy bastard. I have other stories about him, but I will refrain.

Then there was the teacher that I had in 7th grade who was a miserable bitch, although not so much to me. But when my mother (24 years older than me) was in her class, she accused my mother of talking during assembly (she wasn’t), called her up on stage to humiliate her and my mother passed out cold. When my sister (11 years younger than me) had her for 2nd grade, my sister hated her, although I don’t know any special story. She has obviously long since met reward and I hope it is a hot one.

But there was one HS teacher I had that I have long fantasized that if I found him hanging on the edge of a cliff by his fingertips, I would go look for a hammer. He was a gym teacher who thought he was a Marine drill sergeant. When we missed enough gym classes, we had to do makeup after school in order to pass the required gym course. So one year it was my misfortune to have to do one of these makeups. It was my luck that Mr. Shithead (not his real name) was running that makeup and what we had to do was called “running around LaSalle” (that was a small college adjacent to my HS), a distance of probably 2 miles. So I did, walking and running, not very fast. I and a classmate finished last. When we got there he told us that, sorry he had only one card (that certified we had gone through the makeup) and he would flip it to see which one of us got it. The other would have to come back for a makeup another day. He explained that he hadn’t brought enough cards and wasn’t about to go back to his office for more. So he flipped. As a matter of fact, I won the flip and the card, but I never stopped hating him.