#shittyteacher

Over the weekend I heard a story from my mom about myself that I didn’t remember. My brother, his wife and kids, my fiance and I were at my parents’ house for Labor Day lunch. School came up in conversation. A family were knew from the neighborhood had a 5 year old entering kindergarten at the school where I went for kindergarten. My mom wondered if the teacher I had was still there and I said probably not because it was 30 years ago and she was old when I had her. Anyway, my mom and I didn’t have anything nice to say about this teacher I had. I don’t remember much of kindergarten other than my teacher yelling at me a lot. She didn’t like that I was quiet so instead of talking to me in private about it, or talking to my parents, she would scream at me in front of the class. When she finally did talk to my mom about it my mom told her that “if she’s not comfortable with you she won’t talk to you. Sorry, but that’s just how she is.” A friend of mine from the neighborhood was also in my class. His dad and my mom would rotate driving us to school. On our way home from school one day, my friend told my mom that the teacher put me in the closet for not talking to her. My mom was out for blood at this point. She dropped off my friend then ran home to call the school. She set up a meeting with the principal to complain about the teacher. The principal actually tried to justify the teacher’s actions because she was used to working with 6th graders and dealing with their behavior. My mom of course lost her shit and said that I was only 5 years old and she had already talked to the teacher about my talking issues and that putting me in a fucking closet wasn’t the correct way to deal with kids. After that meeting my teacher was as sweet as could be towards me for the rest of the year.

Ever since I heard this story I couldn’t help but be angry about it. I am beyond angry at that teacher for treating me the way she did. I feel like the reason I have a hard time opening up to people is because of her. If she had been more patient with me and tried a different approach to get me to open up to her, maybe I wouldn’t be the bundle of anxiety I am today.

I know there’s nothing I can do about it now, 30 years later. I just will never understand why introverted quiet people always get such a bad rap.

So its the first class of the semester, and for some reason, my teacher thinks we're still in high school (I'm in university) and he makes us go around the room and introduce ourselves, saying our name, program and what year we are in.

Well, people start talking, and it gets to my turn, now for a variety of reasons, I am having to take my 4 year degree, in 6 years (I'm over it), so when I say, who I am, my program, and that I'm in my 5th year, the teacher responds with "so you're graduating this year"

I respond with, "no, I have another year after this"

The looks I got were one thing, but then he responds with this condescending, "well everyone has to do things in their own time" I got really pissed.

I'm a fucking 22 year old man, do not play that game with me.  You don't know my story, who I am, and why I am doing what am doing, and shouldn't have to explain myself to anyone..... 

Really feeling frustrated, it's like, sorry, not everyone is going to do things the "normal" way.  Perhaps I'm over reacting, and maybe he's a lovely person, but I felt super judged by the tone in his voice, and wasn't happy about it...

You know when you take a college course online and the teacher is just as engaged with the online version of his course as he is with the in-person, on-campus version?

Yeah, that ain't what I'm dealing with here.

I can honestly say I have the worst online course professor in the history of distance-learning. To say his evaluation will be "scorching" is an understatement. Honestly, I can't wait. Thinking about what I'm going to write is kind of exciting, and it keeps me motivated to complete the course. I'm not a malicious person, and I generally try to give busy folks a break, but this guy is clearly asking for it.

I swear, folk ballads about this guy's horrible work ethic will be written and sung to children for millennia. Plaques commemorating his ennui will be hung in colleges all over the US. Perhaps a reality TV show can be made as well, one that follows him as he meanders about his day, wandering from his couch to his chair to his beer fridge and back to his couch, avoiding answering questions and generally just costing us lots of tax dollars.