When LA-based animator Marie Lum asked her Twitter followers, “What’s something a teacher did that still makes you mad?” her thread promptly went viral.
In just four days, her tweet amassed 770+ re-tweets, nearly 5,500 likes and over 6.5 thousand responses.
This is because nobody ever get over the injustices of their schooling. Ever.
We all have those formative moments in our childhood or adolescence where we were slighted by a teacher and promptly realised that the world is an unfair place, and adults are capable of making harrowing, emotionally-scarring mistakes.
Perhaps it was an offhand comment, or unfairly marked visual representation, or perhaps Mrs Parker who gave you a uniform detention on that one day you forgot to bring your hat.
These things do happen, and then bereaved students post them onto social media years later for the world to see.
These were our favourite the most rage-inducing responses, with a few of our own thrown in for good measure:
LISTEN: We speak to a teacher about everything they want parents to know, on our podcast for imperfect parents. Post continues after audio.
Teachers that just do unexplainable things just for the sake of it…
When I went to pick up my GCSE results (major UK test around our equivalent of Year 10) I was so nervous when I grabbed the envelope from my teacher that I couldn’t speak. Before I could open it, she dragged me to one side and shouted at me for five minutes for not saying thank you. By the time I saw that I’d got pretty much all As, I was too upset to be excited about it. She totally ruined that moment for me. STILL ANGRY – Polly Taylor.
We’re pretty sure these teachers needs to have a sit down with the principal…
In Year Two we had to stand on a scale in class and have our weights publicly written on the classroom board. Something which would never happen now. I was heavier and taller than most of the other kids so when I stood on the scale my weight was also numerically bigger. Luckily there was another girl in the class that had the exact same weight as me, and we high-fived each other when we found out, but I’m still annoyed at that teacher to this day – Amy Clark.
My maths teacher told me to “sit there vegetate like the vegetable I was” in front of my whole class – all because I asked a legitimate question about some stupid trigonometry thing we were learning which I completely didn’t understand. I was mortified and so embarrassed I never spoke in that class again – Peta Camilleri.
Schooling moments that leave an impression on you for the rest of time…
My teacher was an absolute d*ck (known for staring at the older girl’s bras), however he took a disliking to me based on my older brother. My dad (unknown to me) called the school to have a quiet word with him, for giving me really unfair marks. The teacher then announced to the whole class that my dad called him, and went into detail about the call. – Anna Macdonald.
Group therapy time… tell us in a comment, what is something that a teacher did in either primary or high school that still makes your blood boil to this day? This is a safe space.
LISTEN: Narcissists Anonymous. The Mamamia Out Loud team talk narcissism, decade-old wedding attire, and Lena Dunham’s ovaries.
Top Comments
when I was in year 10 my grades dropped, like off a cliff. I started failing everything. My student coordinator eventually (term 4) had a meeting with me which I was very much looking forward too (as I wanted help). As soon as I walked in the door I realised it would be a waste of time. He had this contemptuous smirk on his face and wouldn't make eye contact. I sat down facing him in my chair, he sat down sideways seemingly purposefully so as to make it very difficult for him to actually look at me. He ended up having to get up and pull out his chair so as to face me. He giggled the whole time and when I suggested something was wrong asked: well do you have I diagnosis?. I said no -he smirks-. I explained that I had asked my parents to take me to various professionals (psych, specialty learning disabilities doctor etc) and that they had refused (they said I was being "selfish and stupid & that I needed to stop being so lazy") this was met with: "so you haven't even got a diagnosis?" & maybe you should just do your work". He ended up saying "maybe I should refer you to the school psychologist. He didn't.______ I booked an appointment for myself with the school psych who wouldn't listen and ranted for 15 minutes about anxiety and meditation then glared at me very angrily when I refused to leave her office (as I wanted to talk about my actual problems)._____For the next 2 years all but 1 teacher glared at me every time I entered their classroom. My maths teacher spent 15+ minutes informing me that some ppl were "perhaps less intelligent then others". he also giggled and was clearly having a difficult time stopping himself from smiling with glee.___not one teacher ever tried to talk to me about what was wrong. I also had no friends the entire time and was being bullied. I sat alone very lunch/recess time with my student coordinator walking past most days. My mother complained to me in late yr11 that because I was so lazy she had to put put up with the student coordinator calling her every week for 3 months asking for her to physically stop me from going to school.___He and my parents ended up pressuring me to sign a something that somehow meant although I was psysicaly at the school that I wasn't officially there and therefore my grades wouldn't be included in the school results that go in the paper every year. I wanted to complete school as horrible at it was I knew I was very immature socially and wouldn't be able to cope in the workplace. I have since been diagnosed with dysgraphia and an extreemly poor short-term memory both of which make it take longer for me to complete my work.
My fine motor skills weren't the greatest in Year 1 and I used to take longer than the lesson time to complete things like writing spelling lists or cutting/pasting words into sentences so I was always kept in during recess or lunch to finish the task. No kid wants to miss out on recess or lunch, so I sped up, completing the tasks in a messy fashion. Always received a B for bookwork and comments on needing to take more care. And to this day i still have scrappy writing!