16 Teachers Who Failed to Lay Down the Law

It’s said that school prepares us for the future. That must be why we often meet teachers who seem to have something against us, making our lives miserable with scolding and bad grades. The good thing is that by the time we reach adulthood, we’re already trained in the art of dealing with people who aren’t known for their kindness. We know what it feels like to be in the crosshairs of a tutor, so here are some memories of those who experienced it and chose the internet for their catharsis.

• I had a chemistry professor in college who once got upset because I could answer all the questions on her exam (she didn’t know that I had just studied chemistry at another school but then changed my career path). However, she wouldn’t give me a 10; she gave me an 8. I asked her why, and she told me that it was impossible for me to get a 10 without cheating. I told her that I could take the exam again in front of her, but she didn’t want to, she simply told me that although she hadn’t seen me, she knew that I had cheated; that’s why she didn’t give me a 10. When I confessed to her that I had studied chemistry at the faculty, she twisted her mouth and told me plainly, “You won’t pass this class with me.” I couldn’t complain to the faculty because even the authorities feared this lady. The only thing I could do was ask that they please divide the class in 2 and hire another teacher because we were too many students for one teacher to handle; and that they could do. I took the course with the other teacher who turned out to be a much better chemistry teacher. He came from the college I had studied at and was an excellent teacher. That’s how I passed that class. © Usagy Cheito / Facebook
• My teachers never said anything bad to me, or so I thought until I went to visit my parents in town one day. I contacted a couple of teachers and went out to have ice cream with them (it’s worth saying that I had already graduated as a journalist and worked on a prominent channel in Argentina). When we met, they greeted me. They were excited and happy to see me and asked what was going on in my life since they didn’t see me around town anymore. I told them my life story, and they both got pretty surprised: “Look at you... we always thought you would never achieve anything and would have a plethora of children.” I almost died. I thanked them and asked them never to tell a child they would become nothing. © Anabela Yanina Oyola / Facebook

• When I was in my fourth year of primary school, I had a teacher named Ovidio. He was always very polite with my mom until he got mad at me in the exams and always gave me unfair bad grades. Luckily, my mom checked them and went to make a claim. They raised my grades. I later discovered they had studied together, and he liked my mom, but she rejected him. That was his way of getting back at her. © Dianita Sanchez / Facebook
• I was an excellent student and very quiet in high school. I managed to get a good GPA and graduated with honors. I went to an all-girls school. A physical education teacher thought I was too short to be in a parade. In the end, I was selected to be in the parade, but it hurt my self-esteem, something I had been trying to conquer for many years. There was also a large group of students who were my classmates. These girls and the teacher would gossip about me to such a degree that I was left without friends. I took refuge in my books and finished high school. To this day, I can’t understand why he disliked me so much when the rest of the teachers loved me, to the point that I’m still in contact with some of them. © Mila Fran / Facebook
• I had a class called Practical Activities (similar to art) in elementary school. The teacher always suggested that my mom and not me did every project because they were neat. The truth is that I always had a knack for crafts and drawing, but she didn’t believe me, so she gave me a low grade. One day, we did a project in class. She saw mine but only gave me a 6, never a higher note. I told my tutor about what this unfair teacher had said, and she spoke with her. Moreover, my drawings were chosen for the annual drawing exhibition, but she didn’t care; she never gave me a higher grade. When some teachers don’t like you, they use grades against you. I love making crafts; I never stopped doing them, even today, at 39. © Romina Rd / Facebook

• My math teacher was also my class tutor. One day, he asked what we wanted to be as adults. At that time, I was really into journalism. When I told the teacher I wanted to become a journalist, she said, “How are you going to dedicate yourself to journalism being so bad at mathematics? Imagine that you have to report a piece of news on mathematics; you couldn’t do it.” I was only 13, so she crushed my dream of being a journalist. In high school, another teacher told another classmate and me not to take the SATs because we would not pass. But we took the exams and passed. I was able to study for the career I wanted. © Sandra Niza / Facebook
• I was in high school, it was the beginning of the year, and we had an elderly math teacher who would come to class, sit down, and make us do mathematical exercises. While we worked on those exercises, he would fall asleep. Since I was the head of my class, my friends basically harassed me, so we took the issue to the school administration and asked for a teacher replacement. We did, and they replaced him. Days later, when I entered the electronics workshop, I was more than surprised to see him there giving us the class. He never gave me a good grade, no matter how hard I tried, and in the end, I failed the class. I took it like 6 times but couldn’t pass it. When I asked him why he was giving me such a hard time, he said, “Do you remember when you and your group accused me? As long as I am here, you will never pass your exam.” And so it was; I passed the class when he was no longer in that school. Great memories that mark our life. © Juan Mateo Juarez Gonzalez / Reddit

• In fourth grade, I brought a homemade sweet bun to school as a snack, but when I got there, I saw that my teacher didn’t bring any breakfast, so I gave her my bun (at that time, I was quite poor, I was in great need at home). I gave it to him with all my love, putting aside my hunger. But at the end of the school day, I had to empty the garbage can and found my sweet bun. My teacher had thrown away what I had given her with so much love! She hurt me a lot, and that memory hurts me to this day. © Pamy Palma / Facebook
• When I finished my degree in computer engineering, I made a remote-controlled underwater robot with a microprocessor. This small submarine took video and had a robotic arm. It reached 820 feet deep. It all happened in 1993, but I didn’t win the award for Best Thesis. Instead, the school gave it to a teacher’s son, who presented something he bought at RadioShack. The justification was that he needed it more than I did. Now he works at Motorola and I’m jobless. © Carlos Pèrez Franco / Facebook

• It was my senior year of high school. I worked during the day and went to school at night. I had to have a breast procedure, so every Friday, I had to go to the doctor and was absent from school. On Fridays, I had an English class, and even though I handed in all my work each class, the teacher made me retake the class because I couldn’t attend the last lessons. I didn’t pass it in December or February. I had to retake the course years later. © Tatiana Pollarolo / Facebook
• My daughter failed math despite going to a private tutor. It turned out that the math teacher, named Aldana, didn’t correct her exercises, she just made her fail. After a long time of not knowing what else to do, another teacher checked one of her tests and confirmed that the answers were correct. This was after Aldana had already given a bad grade. © Karen Carruega / Facebook
• In elementary school, I had a math teacher who had been madly in love with my dad. However, for my dad, she always was an unbearable person, that’s why he never asked her out. I never got a good grade the whole time I was in her class. She almost made me fail the class until my mom went to talk to her and told her, “If you keep giving my daughter the wrong grades as revenge, I’m going to take away your teacher’s license.” © Denisse Cruz Guevara / Facebook