Your experience with teachers in school?

F

francois

Schwat?
Registered Senior Member
I'm not talking so much about the school system in general. I think school, overall, was an okay experience. Not great, not poor. But the teachers I had made a lasting impression on me. They were nearly all clueless, low quality people. Either they were mediocre or bad. I can think of maybe five teachers who were legitimately good and happy teachers. The rest of them were mediocre or sucked..

Let's talk about the teachers you've had in your educational experience with particular emphasis on the lower grades (ie, 1st through 8th). I'm going to talk a bit more about my teachers later.
 
My early school years were composed of:

1 week in a public kindergarten - upstate NY.
1 year in a Catholic school for kindergarten.
1 week in a public first grade - NYC.
2nd-8th grade in a private school - NYC (I skipped).

The Catholic school I learned more in one year than I would up till the 4th. It was brilliant and every teacher was great. St. Gregory's Boy School was truly great.

At my private school, the teachers were a mix. My Japanese teacher, my gym teacher, my fifth grade teacher, my sixth grade math teacher, my latin teacher in the fifth grade, my woodshop teacher from third to eighth grade, my art teacher in eighth, my history teacher in seventh, my orchestra teacher in fifth-eighth, and a few others.

But then there were terrible teachers, too.

But I am very glad to have had the teachers I mentioned above. They all provided me with some excellent education. But you know, it was an expensive school...
 
francois said:
I can think of maybe five teachers who were legitimately good and happy teachers. The rest of them were mediocre or sucked.
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I disagree, I used to think that good teachers were those who were always nice and easygoing with their students but now I think that those who were always angry, always punishing and almost never rewarding, those who really made you work hard, these were the best teachers in the sense that they actually taught me something.

Of course sometimes teachers just plainly hate their job and the students. But generally, I prefer a disciplinary teacher over an indulgent one.
 
globenstein said:
now I think that those who were always angry, always punishing and almost never rewarding, those who really made you work hard, these were the best teachers in the sense that they actually taught me something.
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I totally agree. I learned more from strict teachers who I didnt like. At the time I didnt really appreciate the fact.
 
Very simply.

There are teachers, in the public school system and probably private too, who should not be teaching or be even let around kids.


But yes I have had many teachers whom I loved dearly and actually looked forward to their classes, but didn't learn shit because it was so easy to get them off track or just bullshit all the tests and still pull an A.
 
globenstein said:
I disagree, I used to think that good teachers were those who were always nice and easygoing with their students but now I think that those who were always angry, always punishing and almost never rewarding, those who really made you work hard, these were the best teachers in the sense that they actually taught me something.

Of course sometimes teachers just plainly hate their job and the students. But generally, I prefer a disciplinary teacher over an indulgent one.
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You disagree with what? Did I say somewhere that nice and easygoing teachers are the better teachers? No. I'm saying that in retrospect, many of my teachers were not only incompetent and bad at their jobs, but they were also low-quality human beings. Almost overwhelmingly. It's amazing some of these people are put in charge of our children.

I'm not saying tough teachers are bad. I never said or implied anything of that kind. What I mean when I say they are mediocre or shitty teachers I mean exactly that: they're incompetent and highly unprofessional. I'm talking about teachers who would get off on bossing around little defenseless kids. Teachers who make no attempt to understand kids' problems and turn around and complain about the same kids to other teachers while the kid is in earshot. I'm talking about teachers who will literally get super pissed and be screaming at kids who are six inches away from their faces.

Teachers are essentially baby sitters on power trips and it's insane the kind of shit they get away with, simply because kids don't understand their rights.
 
My fifth-grade teacher was outstanding. She gave the two of us who were way ahead of the class advanced work to do. But in that same school (the district only had one campus), in junior high and my first year of high school, the teachers were awful. My English teacher couldn't diagram a sentence, my algebra teacher couldn't solve a linear equation, my science teacher didn't know how anything worked and my woodshop teacher spent the whole time admiring the paddle he'd made for himself, drilled full of holes so it could be swung faster, and beautifully varnished like a piece of art.

My parents finally paid tuition to send me to high school in a different district, and there were a lot of really good teachers there. They had advanced seminars for the advanced students.

I've never had any use for "tough" leaders of any kind, it's what losers do when they don't have the skills to handle problems in a more constructive way. Prove to me that you deserve to be in charge and you'll have my loyalty. With a lot of teachers, it's, "I don't have to be smarter than you. I get to be in charge now because I'm older. It's my turn."
 
Mrs. Stover, kindergarten, always seemed very stern to me, but she always took the time to make sure were getting our alphabet and simple math down. She didn't just shoverl stuff at us. She'd actually come to each of us and make sure we 'got it'.

From there we moved a lot, but I don't remember having a hard time until 5th grade. Mr. Torres was one of those teachers who'd pick a couple of favorite students that he wanted to be like a 'buddy' to, and they'd get away with murder while the rest of us had to toe the line. It seemed to me he was very demanding, but I was actually coming up through the backwash of my brothers. John had been first, and he was a high-scorer. Luiz was second, and he didn't do quite so well, to be polite. I was given the expectations of John while being treated like Luiz. Even though I out-scored my brothers (I was in MGM, after all), nothing I did was good enough because I didn't act like he thought I was going to act, i.e., like Luiz. Since we bounced back and forth between the same handful of towns, I was in a lot of classes with teachers who had had my brothers as students. Most were not like Mr. Torres. When they saw that I wasn't Luiz, they were more than happy to give me the advanced work.

By the time I hit high school, I had carved my own path into a school my brothers had never been to. I found that most of my teachers were good in that they knew their subjects and they knew how to teach them. One teacher, however, was such a Shakepeare nut that she was almost dead on everything but medieval literature. The problem was that she had a contagious enthusiasm. She taught us so many subtle nuances about the Canterbury Tales and other similar pieces that we were probably the only handful of teenagers in the country who really really enjoyed it. She was no slouch with Shakespeare, either.

Mr. MacNeil was more of a philosopher than an English teacher, and if you got a bad grade on your work with him, it was easy to feel like you had let him down, that you had failed to grasp the lesson. He was just one of those people that you hate to disappoint. He never just let anybody slide, so you'd think he'd be one of the 'hard' teachers. But no, he had a way of making you want to think.

All in all, I had some pretty awesome teachers. I didn't always get along with them. Some I loathed, but all I respected. I had the opportunity to track a few of them down. I sent them thank you notes.

My one quest now is to find the final resting place of Mrs. Stella Deebles. She had the most profound impact not only on my education but on my life. I went through several schools in several districts in two states, and she was always there. I've contacted the districts, but she was not one of their employees. I think she may have been with the MGM program, but I have no idea how to get any information since the program was shut down in favor of the GATE program. She was an older woman (and not just from a kid's perspective) when I first met her shortly before kindergarten, so I'm sure she's passed on by now. I just want to thank her in person, even if only at her grave.
 
I went to three primary schools. My first one was cool. It was a fairly small school in a village, the teachers were all really nice people and I knew all the kids since we lived in the village. Good times. The second was a bit rough, but mainly because it messed with my head - moving from England to Scotland for my last year of primary school, to an area that wasn't as good as my first school. Things were different and I didn't take well to it. The third school was in a better area again, and I got on fine with the teachers and kids.

The teacher in the 3rd school and my final year of primary school pissed me off slightly. I explained I was good at maths and that I'd been in the top maths group in my old schools, but the teacher said he'd put me in the lower group and see how I got on. I stayed in the lower group for the year, despite the fact I was ahead of everyone else and at the end of the year and our maths test I got full marks whilst nobody else in the year did. I'm great at arithmetic, but hate maths, btw.

Secondary school was a fairly bad experience altogether. I was fairly popular and didn't have any problems with the kids, but the teachers were mainly assholes. The kids came from lots of different walks of life and a lot of them were dicks, causing problems for other people regularly. Most classes were disrupted a few times during a period. Some teachers were cool, but it was only laterally when the classes were smaller and we were more mature we realised which ones.

I strongly agree that some people just shouldn't be teachers. Some of the teachers seemed to hate children. Some demanded great amounts of respect, but didn't believe it went both ways. I got into an argument with one teacher about it being a two way street and got sent to the supervision unit - which was always fun.

My Physics teacher was a total headcase. Some of the things he said were bizarre. He'd tell us we were rebels every time we saw him. He pointed out to the girls in our class (when we were around 14) that they'd be better off using sanitary towels, because tampons contain chlorine.

My last English teacher gave up on me, because I never turned up. He gave me the cold shoulder on the rare occasion I showed my face, which seemed reasonable to me. Last year it came out that he'd been having some kind of relationship with one of the girls he taught (16, I think) and he jumped off a bridge.

There was one teacher I'd like to get in touch with, but I'd like to make something of myself before I do. Not that my plans have anything to do with what she taught, but you know what it's like.
 
My experiences with teachers haven't been that great. I did have one in kindergarten and 5th grade that I really liked, but there were still issues.

I think I have more of a problem with the way that the whole school system is set up, not just teachers specifically. Also, the way that misbehaviors are dealt with isn't sufficient. But there are people out there (like Bill Gates) who are trying to fix this problem with America's schools.

Hence why I'm homeschooled now.
 
Teachers can be life changing. I will always remember my senior year math teacher in highschool (ha! except her name of course, but I remember her face- hey it's been a few years). She helped my inner math geek get out of the closet- I ended up getting a degree in mathematics/statistics and probably wouldn't have been motivated if it hadn't been for her.
 
my mom took me out of scholl in the eight grade after a teacher threw a book at me, first a book than a chair. been web skooled ever since.
 
Prince_James said:
My early school years were composed of:

1 week in a public kindergarten - upstate NY.
1 year in a Catholic school for kindergarten.
1 week in a public first grade - NYC.
2nd-8th grade in a private school - NYC (I skipped).

The Catholic school I learned more in one year than I would up till the 4th. It was brilliant and every teacher was great. St. Gregory's Boy School was truly great.

At my private school, the teachers were a mix. My Japanese teacher, my gym teacher, my fifth grade teacher, my sixth grade math teacher, my latin teacher in the fifth grade, my woodshop teacher from third to eighth grade, my art teacher in eighth, my history teacher in seventh, my orchestra teacher in fifth-eighth, and a few others.

But then there were terrible teachers, too.

But I am very glad to have had the teachers I mentioned above. They all provided me with some excellent education. But you know, it was an expensive school...
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Impressive diverse background in a city like NYC and yet you sound so...Louisiana trailerpark. Odd.
 
All of my teachers up to grade 3 were great. After that, they were either fascist, retarded or a combination of both.. with two or three exceptions..
 
I have had a multitude of great teachers. The most memorable teacher I ever had was my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Wooton. He was strict, but also a lot of fun. If you kept up on your work and were respectful in class then he was very funny and kind. He taught tons of science that was way above grade level and I enjoyed that. He also supported me in my love of writing and always pushed me to keep working hard. He also never talked down to the students which is a quality I think is missing in a lot of teachers.

The absolute worst teacher I have ever had was my 7th grade math teacher named Mr. Sheer. He was a complete nutcase. I never understood half of what he said and he spent most of our class time yelling at kids and making long speaches about how he was not gay and had a thrilling relationship with his Fiance, who he had never kissed. Complete weirdo. If you wanted to ask him a question in class, you had to E-mail him from one of the class computers, otherwise he just ignored you. Next to him was Mr. Boyce, my 9th grade Spanish teacher. Needless to say, what I don't understand about spanish could fill a book. He rambled on and on about nothing, told bad jokes, and threw books across the classroom if he got mad. Another complete weirdo. My junior high was so full to the brim with terrible teachers that the three years I spent there were pretty much miserable. There must have been something in the water.
 
None of the teachers I've had have really stood out. I guess I liked most of my science teachers. Probably because they were more systematic when they gave assignments and with their grading systems. For example, most of them gave grades based on a total amount of points for each grading period, instead of based on an average percentage where tests are worth 8 grades. Two of the science teachers that I've had had us keep portfolios of assignments throughout the grading period. They were teaching at the same school, and I was there for the end half of one year and the begining half of the next. There was a lot of work that had to be done for the folders, and I think the first teacher that had us keep them is the reason I have an interest in ecology. Also, most of the science teachers I've had actually taught me something that I hadn't already done on my own at home.
 
the only teachers i remember before the sixth grade are my first and third grade teachers.
first was mrs. bartlett, an old woman that lived on the next block from me.
third was ms. bowel, a young unmarried woman that lived a couple of streets from me.
 
francois said:
I'm not talking so much about the school system in general. I think school, overall, was an okay experience. Not great, not poor. But the teachers I had made a lasting impression on me. They were nearly all clueless, low quality people. Either they were mediocre or bad. I can think of maybe five teachers who were legitimately good and happy teachers. The rest of them were mediocre or sucked..

Let's talk about the teachers you've had in your educational experience with particular emphasis on the lower grades (ie, 1st through 8th). I'm going to talk a bit more about my teachers later.
Click to expand...

For some odd reason the primary school teachers piss me off the most. They seemed to abuse their positions like the retarded bastards I expected as soon as I walked in there. I had this one teacher who seemed to think her class should shut the fuck up in her presence and keep your voice pitch under 2000 db - mouse range.
 
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