Who’s the worst teacher you’ve ever had? And why?

6th grade teacher kept alcohol in his drawer and made even the toughest kids cry. My mother staged a sit-in at the principal’s office until I was switched to another class.

My senior year English class teacher was also the school’s drama instructor. He showed up on the first day and told us that as long as we showed up for class and didn’t leave, he would give us an A. We didn’t have one assignment or test the entire year. I would take a nap the entire class.

I had an electrical engineering teacher in high school who told us we could leave whenever we wanted, but that he would deny allowing us to leave. We all respected the arrangement. We’d sneak out of school, and if we got caught, we’d say that we had asked the teacher if we could go to the bathroom.

I failed algebra 1 freshmen year, and had to retake it. When I did, they dropped me down a level. The teacher would often tell the class, “You guys are stupid. I’m going to invite the honors kids in so they can laugh at you.

I had a high school biology teacher who was especially incompetent and infamous for it. She gave us all kinds of busywork assignments during class, showed a lot of old movies, and her tests were just copied from the textbook website. I got an A+ in that class because I figured out where the test questions were coming from. She seemed to put in the minimum amount of effort. She even later admitted she got the questions from there, so it’s beyond me how the whole class didn’t ace it.

In college I took a summer philosophy course with a grad student teacher and he could not teach. He genuinely seemed to be making up the lesson plan as he went along and sometimes he’d hit a wall and start over. He also sometimes left the classroom to smoke. I mean, he was a grad student so I’d hesitate to consider him a real teacher, but man he was bad. I’m currently a grad student and have done some teaching/seminar-leading myself. I can at least take solace in the fact that I will never be that bad. Students of mine have loved my stories about him, though.

In college the worst prof. I had was in a finance class. I cannot even recall her name; I tried to block memory of the class, unsuccessfully, from my memory.
Supposedly she was a big time official who was on a sabbatical from her regular job in Washington D.C. Her idea of teaching was to get up in front of the class and as soon as the bell rang begin lecturing. Just my opinion but when it comes to finance lecturing is fine but more emphasis should be put on the mathematics involved and woe be unto those who did not understand. If you asked a question while she was lecturing the class, then obviously you were not paying attention. All homework had to be placed on her desk as you walked into class. If you asked a question about your homework assignment then obviously you did not DO the homework. She never, never explained how to solve a homework problem. You were instructed to re-read the assigned text and re-work the assigned problems.
A few weeks in, first major exam was given. It was a combined classroom affair held in a lecture hall and involved classes taught by several professors. Shortly after the exam started I began seeing members of my class getting up, turning in their papers and leaving. About twenty minutes in I gave up. I had no idea about how to answer what was on the test. I too left and went straight to admin to drop the course rather than waste the entire semester. Imagine my surprise to find out I was not the only one from the test there. I later learned from a fellow classmate that three quarters of her class did not return after the test.
She was no longer associated with the school after that semester.

Worst teacher was in elementary, which is about 3rd grade in my memory. This mean teacher refused to let a little Mexican girl go to the bathroom. She peed her pants in the middle of the classroom, hanging her head in shame. I have never forgot and can see it in my mind still today.

My french teacher.

The same person was both the best and worst teacher. She’s a French professor at a local college.

She speaks beautiful, impeccable French, and she has the skills needed to help anyone do the same. About 10 years ago, I took several classes with her. I loved every moment of the experience, and I was amazed by just how quickly I had learned so much. I spent some time in Paris and had enough proficiency to communicate and interact.

Life’s circumstances made me delay my French studies for a while. Last year, I went back to review the old knowledge and get started again. This same professor was a disaster. She was close to retirement, burned-out, and ready to leave. She was extremely disorganized, chastising the class for not knowing things she hadn’t taught. She would often give long monologues, in English, about her retirement plans. Worst of all, she was mean to the younger students, scolding and berating them in the cruelest ways.

What a disappointment. I’d been so excited about returning to my French studies after an unavoidable hiatus, and the reality was the opposite of my expectations.

My 4th grade teacher was super old and super mean.

My 6th grade teacher was loud and scared me.

My 6th grade teacher fell and broke her hip during the Halloween parade.
She was replaced by, first, a substitute teacher who used the class as an experiment in abuse and manipulation, and when he fired, an alcoholic with a grievance against me. That was a rough year.

She’s still alive and an old friend of my mother’s. Not going to answer more specifically.

I also had a substitute teacher who would always go on a ten minute rant on how she doesn’t tolerate back talk, phone use, swearing, etc. She literally got to the point where she’d go red in the face. And we hadn’t even misbehaved.

But after she passed away two years later, we discovered that she had been dying of cancer, and I think she took out her depression and anger on her students. Very sad.

In High School, I had my adviser switch me out of this woman’s class because she would spend whole class periods trying to figure out the curriculum and/or technology, then lecture us because we were behind where we needed to be by that point in the semester.

I took the class on Apex (computer-based learning, self-paced) and finished it within the week.

This one qualifies—

I signed up for biology as a second-year college student. One day after we could no longer drop an unwanted class, the instructor changed the class description to chemistry. It was his last year before retiring, and he didn’t care.

These two don’t quite qualify—

As a sophomore in high school, I ended up in the class of an English teacher known for failing everyone except 2 students per semester. I didn’t believe it, until I got an F for the first quarter. I decided I was not going to take that and began to over-apply myself. My final report card for the class showed a B.

My fourth grade teacher told me I would never ever be allowed to use a pen, because my handwriting was too sloppy. I set out to prove her wrong and was able to change my handwriting, to her serious chagrin.

Mrs Brockman…not that it was her fault!!! She had been a 2nd Grade teacher for close to 20 years & she was suddenly changed over to a combination class of 4th & 5th grade. She was out of her element & it was obvious that she HATED it!!! She only lasted 1 year until they changed her back to the 2nd grade & hired someone new to handle the 4/5 class. My brother had her wen she was changed back to the 2nd Grade & he loved her!!! She was the ONLY really bad teacher that I can remember!!!

My best was Mrs Bailey. She loved teaching & loved EVERY child in her class!!!

In kindergarten I had a teacher who cut me for misbehaving. I still carry that scar with me. I also had a teacher who locked me in the toilet for failing to sing a song correctly.

In 4th grade I had a teacher who considered me mentally ill and got the entire class against me. Whenever someone said anything about me, she would say “oh, that girl is sick in the mind. Don’t take her seriously”.

In 8th grade I had a teacher who was so vengeful she remembered in details every mistake her students did. I was her victim.

In 9th grade I had a teacher who actively looked for way to bring me down because I was better at English than her.

In 10th grade I had a teacher with serious superiority complex. Anyone who couldn’t perform well became the target of her ridicule. Physics was never my best subject and I ended up at the receiving end of her stick.

In 11th grade I had a teacher who was only interested in ranting about life. He didn’t teach at all yet expected the whole class to be straight A.

In 12th grade I had a teacher who told me I should consider changing school because I learned so bad.

I have spent the last few years not to fall into the same pitfall as those horrible people.

I had an electronics teacher in high school who just did not teach. He would take roll and leave us, it was a two hour class. Worthless POS.

I was just describing teachers who were bad at teaching; some of you are describing actual abuse. Were any of these abusive teachers brought to justice? @Mimishu1995 in particular, your kindergarten teacher should’ve been locked up.

It sounds like a cultural thing @Demosthenes. It is still so very, very wrong.
In older America teachers used to be able to get away with physical abuse, too.

In Junior High School we had a shop teacher who had a wall full of paddles that he had made in class. They ranged from long slender canes to huge, wide slabs made from 2×6’s some had holes that made a screaming whistle as they were swung, some were solid, some had brass nodules lining them that would dimple your behind. Misbehave and you got to choose the implement of your punishment. There were long, involved discussions as the the merits and disadvantages to each and every paddle mounted there. General consensus was you stayed away from those that he had taken the time to name.
To top it off he usually had another student give the licks. It did not happen very often but when it did you could bet the class would be well behaved for a long time afterwards.

In High School we had a baseball coach who doubled as the boys, next to useless, health teacher. The entire front of the class was one continuous chalk board and he had a row of erasers all along the entire length of the chalk tray. Classes were pretty boring stuff presented in a pretty boring manner but if you were acting up or even just not paying attention he would send one of the erasers flying at high speeds toward your head. He was a good shot too. Rarely missed but woe be unto you if he did and you were not paying attention.

Ah, those were the days….

Your shop teacher sounds like a sadist @rojo.

My English / Creative writing teacher (who was my favorite teacher) chucked an eraser at a kid’s head once, for spelling “a lot,” as one word, LOL! I never forgot that lesson!

And then there was my primary school teacher, who accused me of raiding the christmas calendar. Racist bitch.
I heard a rumor later, that she got sacked for slamming to kids’ heads together.

When I was in teaching school the instructor told us a story about a teacher who got so frustrated and angry that he took a bat to a large metal trashcan that was out in the hall. No big deal really….except that there was a kid in the can! LOLL!!!
The kids can drive you INSANE! These parents totally fuck their kids up, then send them to us to fix, then bash the school system because we didn’t fix them.

I was a total brat, until college, where I got to actually learn. All the punishment I got, which was very little, was well deserved. I worked for it, and they did not always pay me for it.

College was completely different. I loved school then and applied myself to it with great delight and you might say with fervor. My favorite instructor there was Mr. Endert, an English teacher who tended to clear all his classrooms within the first two days, down to about 5 (max) students. I took 3 classes with him and tried to take a fourth, but he only taught three then. He was hard, he was demanding, he was perfectionistic, and NO ONE got an A. Period. But he was worth it.

@KNOWITALL I remember a sub doing that to a kid. I still remember it after all of these years. I can only imagine how scarring it must be for the kids themselves. :(

@Dutchess_III Uh…what? Why was there a kid in a trash can?!

My sophomore year of high school, we moved. I switched to this crappy school.

The Spanish teacher would give us one worksheet to do for the whole hour. I would finish in five minutes and just sit there for the rest of the period.

One time he spent the whole class period talking—in graphic detail—about how he got food poisoning one time in Tijuana. Literally talked about diarrhea and puking for a whole freaking hour.

Students would just get up and leave in the middle of class and come back a half hour later chowing down on a burrito. Both the teacher and other students did not seem to think this was out of the ordinary behavior.

After the whole year, we still hadn’t caught up to the work we had been doing at my old school when I left.

@Demosthenes if she did that today she would be locked up fast. Bust it was 20-some years ago. Back then a kid wasn’t supposed to question a teacher in any way. Everything the teacher did was right and you weren’t allowed to say otherwise. I was brainwashed by this mentality and I didn’t tell anyone about it for fear of “being a bad child”. The action was only labeled as abuse 10 years later, and I realized how horrible it was then.

@raum It was probably a made up story, but It meant he wanted to beat the shit out of the student. The story was meant to underscore that teaching is not for the faint hearted. Some of the kids can push you over the edge if you aren’t strong.
This classes I taught on Monday (cycled between 3rd, 4th and 5th grades) were pretty awful. The 4th grade was the worst. They bragged that they made their regular teacher cry last week.

I don’t think it was meant as a metaphor. He often spent the entire period talking about who knows what. The Tijuana trip story just stood out in my memory because he went into it with graphic detail.

There was no student involved in his story. Do you mean the people just walking out of class? Two separate incidents. Tijuana storytime and burrito break not related.

You have me confused. I’m not sure what you’re talking about. You asked me why there was a kid in the trash can, and that’s what I was explaining.

LOL!

I thought you were responding to my example of a bad teacher.

That the Tijuana food poisoning story meant that he wanted to beat up the kid who left to get a burrito.

LOL! Well, I wanted to beat up the vending machine that gave me a the burrito that gave me food poisoning in college!

As long as you didn’t take a bat to it, I think you’re good.