Everyone has had their share of bad teachers. No one likes to remember them, but you always will. Lazy, overly strict, and downright mean describe a few of these teachers. I was fortunately able to escape these types of teachers throughout elementary school. However, my luck was short lived. From 6th grade through 8th grade, my homeroom teacher was the notorious for being unreasonable in all aspects of her teaching. Every single student was petrified of her. How unreasonable was she? In homeroom, the only time you could talk was during the Pledge of Allegiance. During your 15 minutes of homeroom, you had 2 choices: read or do homework. Noise = Disruption= Detention. If you were late for homeroom, you would get a 15 minute detention after school. In my case, I once was running late and entered the classroom as she was closing the door. She counted that as late even though the clock read 8:30. My first and only detention ever! Unluckily I also had her for math class and like homeroom, you could not make any noise aside from when you answered her math question. If you answered incorrectly, she would scowl and make a comment to belittling your lack of mathematical intelligence. Her classroom dictatorship was her claim to fame and likewise why all 7th and 8th graders dreaded to have her as their math teacher.
Of course, this one teacher is an extreme example of bad. In retrospect, I believe she thought she was helping the students focus solely on the math problems and enabled them to vigorously correct their answers so they would be RIGHT. However, right answers don't always mean that you learn. Mistakes help you learn and master the material at hand. Her hostility towards students created a fear and anxiety of math class for many-- including myself. This teacher should be forgettable, but I cannot.
So why is this memory so vivid right now? I had to think about every bad teacher I've had so I could reassure my child during his time of pain. Through this recollection, I told him: 1. I also had teacher who didn't like me as a student 2. I also have had a teacher that I didn't like 3. how I coped in a strict classroom to survive the school year 4. everything will be ok...eventually.
Since I had such fond memories of all 4 elementary schools I attended, I never expected to have this conversation with my child during his elementary school years. However, when your child, who has just started his new school year, returns home crying about what his teacher said. All the old memories of those bad school experiences come back to you quickly. What made me furious? My son loves to play and play and play. For the last 2 years after school, the kids who are picked up by their parents were allowed to continue playing in the upper yard until their parent arrived. Usually there are some parents around and they'll keep an eye on the kids who are there. However the school started a new rule this past week where kids can no longer play in the upper yard without their parent supervising. My child wasn't happy. Essentially he tried to stay in the yard even though the teachers told him he could not. From this action, I agree he should have obeyed his teachers requests. Yet, his new teacher told him if he doesn't follow what she says, "Do you really want to go back to 2nd grade?" The fear and embarrassment of demotion was too much for my child and he started crying at school. When my husband picked him up, he was already crying. He cried all the way home. He was composed when he opened the door and walked through our long hallway. But once I said, "What's wrong?" , he broke down and started sobbing saying he doesn't want to go back to 2nd grade and tried to explain why these harsh words were said to him.
As a current instructor to adults, and a former tutor to many elementary school kids, I cannot understand how any teacher could say that to a student. This rhetorical question serves no positive purpose for the student's ears. You are an educator! You should be the one who boosts self esteem ! Instead this teacher made my child feel inferior, small, and stupid. The insecurity will always linger making him think maybe I'm not smart enough to be here because that's what the teacher said. The irony is this statement had nothing to do with learning. It had everything to do with having absolute authority and control in a setting that has more variables than her own classroom. In fact the current teacher has no authority to demote to a lower grade, she only has the ability to make the student repeat the grade. She made an empty threat to my child which is unacceptable to me as a mom and an educator.
To get justice, I sent my disapproving email to the school principal. Subsequently I got a curt apology from the teacher. My child will not get the apology, however I did tell him that the principal will not allow him to go back to 2nd grade. Since he knows the school hierarchy, he knew that was the final say and he was relieved. I went on to tell him how to cope in this teacher's classroom. After this incident, I'm extremely skeptical about how she interacts with students and how sensitive she is to their needs.
This event has bothered me for 2 days. It taught me to become more observant of teachers and school life creating a little bit of cynicism on my part. I know these feeling will pass in time. One aspect I feel uncomfortable is teaching him how I acted in the classroom when I was a child. As I said before, I was petrified of many teachers due to the fear of embarrassment or the wrong answer. So most of the time, I just kept quiet. I really didn't want that trait for my kids. I sent them to a play-based preschool so they could make their own decisions and resolve problems on their own terms. It's a shame I had to reteach my free-thinking, free speaking child how to act like a robot in a classroom so he doesn't make more waves. I taught him to follow whatever everyone else is doing. Basically do not do what you feel like in fear of repercussions ie. time outs! My short robot talk with him worked. He was able to remove all of his time outs by following what I taught him in one day. Good for my method, Bad for being free thinking.
If you're still reading now....Thanks for listening to this super long vent. I promise the next post will be lighter.
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