If you've ever had a teacher who came across as frightening, mean, or intimidating, how has this teacher affected you?

I had a science teacher like that… in grade school… he liked attacking students who didn’t respect his “Authora-ta”...he became a vice-principal and I kissed his ass before I kicked it and he and I became to respect each other… I got an 85% that grade in science… He said that 75% is a pass because you forget 75% of the material anyway…I ended up loving science and learning how to adjust my emotions to adapt to the situation

Okay prepare to be frightened.One particular teacher,History if memory serves,he would wear his pj’s underneath his suit,he wore several watches on each wrist,he had body odour issues & he would keep a baseball boot in his desk drawer for those “special” occasions.Funny thing is as odd as he sounds no one was in any way frightened by him. More a figure of fun.I actually can’t recall anyone ever been struck with his boot,we would all just laugh & he’d kind of give in.

lets see…in first grade i had a really mean teacher.She’d always put kids in time out and one time I didn’t get my lunchbox from the closet fast enough, so she held it up in front of the class and asked whose it was. I didn’t speak up because I was too scared…so she threw it out and I had to dig it out later. Another teacher would go through the class and read off our test/quiz grades…he thought it was fine though because if we did bad he’d make it seem like he was proud and if we did good he’d get mad. I didn’t care…it was still pretty embarrassing. I’d say the teachers impacted my life, but not in a big way. I still remember and it makes me angry, but it didn’t really change me or anything. If anything it taught me what not to do if I ever become a teacher.

There was a woodshop teacher I had in 9th grade that was (and still is) one of the most intense people I have ever met. He would make people run laps for doing something wrong, he would make people take random objects as bathroom passes (such as a ladder), and he was a stickler for calling tools by his names. For example, tin snips were supposed to be called U.S. aviation right cutting tin snips…

I had this one teacher sophomore year of high school. He taught American history. I use the word “taught” loosely. He didn’t do much in the way of teaching. He would give us lectures about our behaviors, he would swear at us even though he specifically forbade us to do so in class, he would get angry with us. He graded based on how well he liked you, not on how well you did in the class. In a 45 minute class, we would often get only about 20 minutes to do tests, because he spent the first half of the class talking. One time, he even gave us a quiz as the bell rang to be handed in by the end of the school day, because he had talked so much that he didn’t have time to give us the quiz.

He was irrational, unhelpful, mean, belittling, angry and bitter, and he always took it out on us. I learned nothing about American history from him. However, I did learn how to handle people specifically educators like that. Thus far, this has proven to be a valuable skill.

We had a pervert English teacher in middle school.He got fired years later.

My astronomy teacher was mean.
He was so mean in fact, that, after he disappeared, rumors circulated that it was because his meanness drove one of the pupils to suicide.

I had one awful teacher which is saying a lot because he was the only teacher I had from kindergarten to graduation. I went to a one-room school in the country. Our “teacher” had no college education, frequently spanked us, yelled at us, didn’t spend much time on English because he didn’t like it, made us “sit up straight and face the blackboard, bottom to bottom and back to back” for hours when he didn’t feel like teaching and said things like this, “Girls are airheads. That’s just the way God made them. They’re emotional and can’t make decisions for themselves. That’s why you boys have to grow up to be good, Godly men so you can help your wives to think and make decisions.” Did I mention this was a Christian school? He was not a nice man and it was not a good education.

Mrs. Morris – man was she mean! She always said, “Everybody says they like to girls best, but I like the boys best.” My mother once said sent in a note asking about the time it took me to do my homework and all the rest of the year she would say, “Everybody needs to do this assignment, except for Janet because it will take her too long.” (Needless, to say, I did them all!) She also told us that 666 in Revelations stood for Russia and they were the Anti-Christ. (I wrote an essay disputing that.) I think it was two years before I opened my mouth in class again. I still remember her humiliation of me and that was over 40 years ago!

Yes- in ROTC during college. I had a this Sergeant from the 82nd Airborne Division. He had been used to being around troops, and was now having to be an instructor at a college and deal with cadets. (he absolutely HATED cadets) We still referred to him as “First Sergeant” since that had been his title at the 82nd. He was so hardcore MEAN it was insane. Like he drank his coffee black, and bragged how he slept on the floor and only allowed himself to sleep 3 hours at night. He would arrive to class with his black cup of coffee in one hand, and his spitting cup for his tabacco in the other. If you were a couple of seconds late to class, he would lock the door. One day,I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to say “yes sir” to him- and he yelled at me, “I am not a sir! I work for a living!” (something sergeants always like to say- sir is only for Officers) Then he made me do pushups in the middle of the hallway. Mind you, I was wearing a mini-skirt at the time! It was so embarassing. I never thought as a college student I would be doing pushups in the middle of the hallway as everyone is walking by and going to class. I’m now a captain in the Army, and I’d like to go find wherever that little fucker is and make HIM do pushups!!!!

In second grade, my teacher retired and we got a replacement: Mrs. O’Neill. She was the meanest teacher I ever had. I’ll never forget the day one boy (who shall remain nameless) was struggling with something we were doing. She got mad and pulled his ear hard, which made him cry. We were all stunned because this was a kid who never got in trouble or was a problem. And she wore some really ugly suits…

I was initially very intimidated by my geometry teacher. He was kind of gruff and didn’t take kindly to any fooling around in class. However, it turned out that he was the most helpful teacher I had in high school. I couldn’t understand proofs to save my life. He worked and tried everything but standing on his head to get it to make sense. Poor guy, when I got a 63 on my state regents exam, I felt like I had failed both of us, not just him.

I love strict teachers since they’re usually will dominating the class and free from intervention from other student/collegian. I met some weak male and female teacher when I was in my junior high school. All of them are easily intimidated by other student,let the all the student to behave inappropriately and sometime out of control. I also met some strict teachers that are capable to handle bad students in our class and he/she love to reward other people who prove his/her ability and deserve a reward(I tend to became opportunistic and pragmatic with these kind of teacher). As I know,usually stricter teacher posses greater knowledge than those who weak in personality.

I had a 1st grade teacher who spanked kids with her trusty yardsticks for any infraction. I hated her. She was the epitome of justice without mercy. I got whacked after telling a girl behind me to stop kicking me. But because Mrs Macek didn’t see it, the girl escaped punishment. She had taped three of them together and used them on “misbehaving” students. It was just another instance of an adult tamping down my natural exuberance (along with my guardian, who was quite handy with extension cords, and my Sunday school teacher, who had huge hands and was constantly swatting me and other kids with them), which I see was a very misguided thing to do.

I spent way too many years being afraid of repercussions for acting like myself or for making mistakes, even as an adult. It struck me one day when I was terrified of getting yelled at at work for making an error, and those childish fears came rushing back. Then I realized that, at the time, I was 34 years old. Really, my boss wasn’t going to whack me with yardsticks and I had nothing to be afraid of.

Adults, I believe, need to figure out how to channel kids’ energy into advantageous areas, instead of always forcing them to sit down and shut up. No, kids shouldn’t run wild, but there has to be a happy medium between that and shutting them down because adults are too lazy to be arsed with honestly educating them. The “seen and not heard business” can be a real soul killer.

Both my science teacher and maths teacher were very intimidating to me and would tease theose of us who weren’t good at the subjects. Because of this I struggled to do well in these lessons (I wasn’t naturally talented at either subject) because I dreaded going to them.

I had a 4th grade teacher who used to make me nervous, or had upset me a couple of times. My father actually went in and spoke to him. I guess I was very sensitive? In retrospect, overall, he was a fantastic teacher. He really observed each student to see where they excelled, where they might be gifted, and was willing to take the time to focus on these skills. I am talking about the ones who obviously displayed incredible potential within a certain subject. I remember him reading college level books with one child, which wound up to be a little too difficult, but did offer him more advanced books to take home (he had books in general for us to borrow and return at many different levels. That’s how my mom was able to read the Nancy Drew Series LOL) and I was very advanced in math, so I was in a group of a few other kids at a very high math level. When I moved to MD in 5th grade I was way ahead in math, I tested on an 8th grade level.

I have to say most of my teachers were good. I dont have many complaints at all.

One time in middle school, I was acting like a smart ass in class until suddenly all of the students got quiet. I continued and to my surprise… the principal of the school was standing in the back of the class watching.

He pulled me out into the hall, grabbed me by the arm, pointed at me and knelt down about 2-inches from my face and gave me a stern talking-to. I’ve never acted out in class again…

More positively, I’ve had excellent teachers throughout my academic career that have inspired me to try harder in school and all around become a better student.

Mrs Granger in 5th grade. When we got our results back from the CAT she announced all the student names wo were in the 99%. She left mine for last and said it was in the low 99%. WTF is low 99%.

She kept me out of honor role even though I had straight A’s b/c she didn’t like my left handed writing.

I found a butterfly outside and had it in my desk. she saw it and took it from me, then rips it in half before throwing it out the window.

She worked at Long Hill Elementary School in Fayettville NC in the early 80’s, if you come across her kick her in the nads for me.

Hateful B*tch.

@Shae My mom had a teacher who didn’t like left handed students, she was forced to write with her right in that class. Ridiculous. The teacher said that she wanted to see all of the pencils at the same angle when she looked out onto the class of students doing their assignments.

I’ve been to many schools. In Russia, you couldn’t question teachers but I was always taught to question – we also had to wash the floors after school so when, once, I didn’t feel like it, a teacher yelled at me in a disrespectul manner and my 7 year old self threw the wet mop in her face. Later on, when I was in 6th grade here in the U.S., I had this teacher for I can’t remember what class and she played favorites, she made me feel like I hated my life because of her and I wrote a note to her expressing how much I dislike her. And I gave it to her. In college at NYU I remember dealing with a professor that I named Mother of the Devil – he enjoyed never giving out As, tormenting his students, favoring white boys with biblical names (no joke, he’d have a group of them come to his apartment for ‘study’) – he was an ass but he didn’t scare me and at one point he stopped me in the hall way and said ‘You aren’s scared of me’ and I said “why should I be – it’s so obvious you’re trying to scare us’ and then he picked me to be in the Howard Hughes Honors Science Institute for the summer as a challenge to me – I was someone he thought would fail but I was the only that got publishable results for my work on c.elegans and evolutionary mapping. He was pissed. I looked straight at him as I presented my results, it was great.

@JLeslie That was fairly standard in NYC at that time. My Dad was a natural lefty who was forced to be a righty.

@janbb interesting. It only happened to my mother with one teacher (she grew up in The Bronx). My mom is a lefty, but does a lot with her right. Cooking, cutting, and more.

@JLeslie My Dad is older than your Mom so maybe it was an older teacher who was a holdover.

@janbb Makes sense.

I had an English teacher in middle school who was had a reputation for being strict and having high standards. She wasn’t particularly mean, but the reputation translated into better student performance (and a lot more student grumbling).

A very common teacher tactic for managing classrooms is denigrating, humiliating, and outright insulting their students. They use it, and are encouraged in its use by their peers, because it is highly effective for maintaining order. Sadly, it also results in student results and motivations plummeting, as they believe the terrible things an authority figure says about them repeatedly. Most of the time, it’s not true, and these children have had their abilities and their beliefs about those abilities snuffed out because they had trouble sitting still and quiet at a desk for six hours in a row.

If that’s not systematic abuse, I don’t know what is.

@elenuial you reminded me of this story: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/bizarre&id=7327266

Part of my grade school years were spent in Mississippi where corporal punishment is still practiced. I was often paddled, publicly humiliated (I had one teacher who would put the student’s desks in a circle, place me in the middle of the circle, and have me stand in the middle on one leg with my arms extended to the side. Only to start the time over if I lost balance.) and on one occasion I was forcefully slapped across the face by a different teacher. (I was jumping back and forth over a puddle and hadn’t heard the teacher ask me to stop.) I had undiagnosed ADHD and was constantly getting on the nerves of teachers. This went on for about five years.

Even when I was in scholastic environments where corporal punishment wasn’t used my inquisitiveness, difficulty with tracking things, and impulsiveness was often shamed and ridiculed. I think teachers have better tools now.

It took me a long time to undue a sense of feeling stupid and inadequate to breathe when it came to academics and I hated them. It never dawned on me to pick up a book for pleasure until I was a young adult.

I also have very positive teacher experiences. I had one teacher who would bring me and a couple other ’troubled’ kids grocery shopping and then home with her on friday afternoons. I had one who knew how to stir her students towards thought and treated students with respect, she even had me babysit for her. I had an adored teacher who knew how to express her frustration with me yet still manage to honor me and celebrate my curiosity. I think it is those positive experiences that kept the negative ones from overshadowing my life.

I took an instant dislike to a teacher I was assigned to in the 10th grade, and I went to the office and asked to be reassigned, and they gave me a new teacher right then and there. The teacher didn’t like was fired a few weeks later.

I had a scary professor for two classes. He affected me by forcing me to be extra prepared for every class; he would make you look like an imbecile if you weren’t.

The most mean, intimidating teacher I had was my Weight Training teacher in 10th grade.
When we were in his class, we were to be working out. Period. Not stopping.

It was a class of about 40 students, split up into groups of 8 I believe. If one of us was caught taking a break, the other 7 of us had to do some amount of pushups, to be determined based on how good he was feeling.

How was I affected?
I worked out ridiculously hard. I had some pretty absurd muscles at the end of 10th grade.