Teachers

I have remembered a few more instances from high school in the late 80’s. An English substitute teacher often ridiculed me, and often made me read to the class despite knowing I was ‘shy’. I excelled in English Lit and Language! Maybe she was jealous? She forced me up to the front of class to explain why ‘someone like me’ thought I knew more than her, considering I was a nobody, and she had been to university….!  I refused, but then she said the whole class won’t continue until I get up and come to the front…unless I’m too scared too, and she smirked.

By this point (after weeks of bullying from her), I was full of anger. I went up, stood an inch away from her face and reeled off her inadequacies, and her poor ability to handle a class of 15yr olds. The class whooped in support, because I was right, and they all hated her. She tried to slap me round the face, I stopped her. I looked at her and warned her that if she was going to hit me she better be ready for the consequences, she left the room red faced. I was shaking with anxiety, but I was glad to finally stand up for myself.

Another teacher, in design and tech was much the same. She ignored me, didn’t respond to my requests for help or explanation, consistently marked down my work, regularly ‘lost’ my work, and regularly ‘damaged’ my work so I had to re do it. Again, after months of this, I stopped participating in the lesson. I just came in, sat down, and done nothing. This was another subject I excelled in. Perhaps she didn’t like that. I don’t know.

Abuse doesn’t always have to be physical. Sometimes it’s words, or just a look that makes you feel small and insignificant.

I have remembered a few more instances from high school in the late 80’s. An English substitute teacher often ridiculed me, and often made me read to the class despite knowing I was ‘shy’. I excelled in English Lit and Language! Maybe she was jealous? She forced me up to the front of class to explain why ‘someone like me’ thought I knew more than her, considering I was a nobody, and she had been to university….!  I refused, but then she said the whole class won’t continue until I get up and come to the front…unless I’m too scared too, and she smirked.

By this point (after weeks of bullying from her), I was full of anger. I went up, stood an inch away from her face and reeled off her inadequacies, and her poor ability to handle a class of 15yr olds. The class whooped in support, because I was right, and they all hated her. She tried to slap me round the face, I stopped her. I looked at her and warned her that if she was going to hit me she better be ready for the consequences, she left the room red faced. I was shaking with anxiety, but I was glad to finally stand up for myself.

Another teacher, in design and tech was much the same. She ignored me, didn’t respond to my requests for help or explanation, consistently marked down my work, regularly ‘lost’ my work, and regularly ‘damaged’ my work so I had to re do it. Again, after months of this, I stopped participating in the lesson. I just came in, sat down, and done nothing. This was another subject I excelled in. Perhaps she didn’t like that. I don’t know.

Abuse doesn’t always have to be physical. Sometimes it’s words, or just a look that makes you feel small and insignificant.

• Wow! That was brave. I can remember a boy being punched by a teacher. The boy had an older brother, the school had a pay phone, he rang his brother and he came out of work and marched up the hill to the school. He walked straight into the class and knocked the teacher out. He became a folk hero. I do agree though that words can hurt just as much. These teachers were supposed to nurture young minds, not destroy them. One teacher was brilliant and I always kept in contact with him. He was my sports teacher, traditional they would be the most insane but he wasn’t. I got bullied quite a lot when doing sports. I have no coordination, I can’t throw, catch or kick a ball and when running seem to have too many legs. The bullying was particularly bad one day and he took me off the pitch and said that he realised that sport wasn’t my thing, but something out in the world will be. He then said to not worry about any of them on the pitch, in less than a year I would be leaving and will  most probably never  see any of them again for the rest of my life. He was right. I sometimes only takes one decent teacher to stop someone doing something serious to themselves.