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I have two personal examples. Fifth grade we took a test. The next day the teacher told the class that everyone did very bad on the test. So bad that she was thinking about giving a make-up test, but since David (me) was able to pass the test with an A then there will be no make-up test. It was around that time that I had begun lowing my grades to C and B averages. I had been an honor roll student with B to A average. The class didn't want to have anything to do with me.
Another time was high school. I was born with a right foot that turns outward when I walk. Our PE teacher enjoyed being "one of the guys" so he too mocked me for the way I walked in front of the class. By then I had turned myself off emotionally to my fellow students. Didn't expect it from a teacher. In those days, telling a parent or principal wouldn't have made a difference. Teacher's word trumped student's word almost every time (mid 1980s).
This next one wasn't as traumatic but I still vividly remember it after more that 25 years. We were about to take a test on Romeo and Juliet. This teacher allowed us to sit in any seat. The jocks had me sit in the middle of the room and they circled me with their desk. She saw this and ordered me to put my desk next to her desk to take the test (teacher's pet).
When I started 9th grade at a new high school, my mom gave me the big speech about making good grades, GPA, etc. So I took it to heart and studied my butt off. I basically memorized the textbook for one of my classes because I heard that teacher was particularly difficult. After the 1st test, the teacher called me out in front of the whole class and accused me of cheating because no one can honestly get a 99.5% on one of her tests. I denied it, and she threatened me with the principal. I got kind of ticked and walked out and went straight to the office. That was my one and only visit to the principal. ever. That teacher didn't come back the next year. I never tried to study that hard again... not until my second round of college.
Another time when I was in 10th grade my English teacher told that whole class that I got a 100 on a writing assignment. (no, I wasn't even trying). I was soooo embarrassed because I instantly became That Student (the one everyone hates because they can do well without trying). I had a chat with the teacher after school that day and politely ripped her a new one. She honestly didn't understand why I was embarrassed. grrrrr. I wish FERPA existed back then.
I had a teacher who had anger management problems...he was scary! Another teacher who put everyone in the play but me...another one who had counter transference issues and hated me...who knows why?
There are so many mentally unbalanced teacher's out there...it is scary. I knew many teachers with unhealthy boundaries.
Sometimes just a little comment will affect a student profoundly. In 7th grade while we were learning algebra, I asked the teacher for help because I truly could not get the whole "working both sides of the equal sign" thing. My parents always said, "If you really need help, just ask the teacher. It's what they're there for."
So I called her over to my desk, and I guess she got frustrated because I didn't get it right away, and she said in a fairly loud voice, "Well, it's just addition. Even my 5-year-old granddaughter can add."
Of course, I never ever asked the teacher for help again, and basically my math development stopped right there.
I wish everyone would know NOT to make personally humiliating comments like that.
Examples where student grades were shared with the class (sailordave and eresh) it completely violates FERPA laws. As a classroom teacher, I never share student grades with anybody except the student and their parent/guardian. I often have grandparents ask how "little Johnny is doing in school" at school functions, and I have to tell them I can't share that with even them.
THAT is the legality of the situation.....the reality is that students who feel belittled by teachers would never speak up for their legal rights.....and teachers know this.
There was a fifth grade teacher in my elementary school that was just awful. He teased one of the nicest boys in the class by always picking on him and calling him Romeo as in "Isn't that right, Romeo?" (One of the girls in the class liked him.) The kid, who was really quiet normally, started getting eye twitching all of the time and began to studder. The teacher was like a bad dog, relentless because he smelled fear. By the time 6th grade rolled around, the kid was a total introvert.
Once, he gave a spelling test and the whole class got 100 percent except he started in on me because I didn't dot one of my "i's" so "it REALLY wasn't all 100's." All through the day he reminded the class that I didn't dot my i. Unlike the boy he picked on, however, he forgot about me by the next day.
Examples where student grades were shared with the class (sailordave and eresh) it completely violates FERPA laws. As a classroom teacher, I never share student grades with anybody except the student and their parent/guardian. I often have grandparents ask how "little Johnny is doing in school" at school functions, and I have to tell them I can't share that with even them.
THAT is the legality of the situation.....the reality is that students who feel belittled by teachers would never speak up for their legal rights.....and teachers know this.
Was such a thing in place before 1987 (the year I graduated)?
I had a teacher who threw erasers and chalk at us. Talk about scars...these were physical.
Probably the way teachers were back in Yugoslavia in the 1970s?
In middle School there was a teacher who let you choose between a whack with the BURNER or lie on the flor spinning in circles yelling--"I AM A DYING COCKROACH"
We had a band teacher in middle school who would get so frustrated that he literally threw the black metal music stands. We were the best band that school had in many decades and placed in local and state competition no thanks to him. He'd get so angry he'd storm out of the classroom. The four best students (one sax, two trumpets, and one drum) all helped those who had trouble catching up. One student wasn't good with his instrument but knew the music. He got up and began directing us. As we're performing the music perfectly, the band teacher returned with the principal. The band teacher and principal were struck dumb. This made the teacher even angrier because he thought we had been faking our mistakes to make him look bad. He didn't need our help to make him look bad. That was his last year.
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