20+ People Remember Teachers They Would Rather Forget

The schooling process is something we all have to go through to reach adulthood. Throughout those years, we meet hundreds of different people. In all the experiences that remain in our minds, teachers and professors are important protagonists because of their place as educators. And even though there are many very good ones, some go out of the norm and engrave their faces forever in the minds of children. We’ve put together a list of many stories from adults who had indelible experiences with unsympathetic teachers. After reading, you may value your favorite teachers even more!

• In my third year of high school, my English teacher did not approve of me because of my pronunciation. I showed up in December, March, and July, then again in December, March, and July, and still didn’t get my degree because the teacher had something against me. One day, I seriously told her, “Is there nothing I can do?” Finally, I talked to the principal and he gave me the opportunity to take the exam with another teacher. Years went by. I was working at a hospital, and that mean teacher showed up with a health issue. I was the one who took care of her. She needed my help, and I didn’t take revenge or anything, I just reminded her of how bad she was. She just apologized to me, but I was happy. © Sanz Loly / Facebook
• A Tech Management teacher didn’t like me very much because I once answered her in a cocky way. She gave me a 4 on my final paper (I needed a 6 to pass) and gave my partner an 8. I politely asked my classmate for her paper, and at home, I compared her answers with mine. They were the same, only that my classmate used 2 more sheets of paper because of the size of her handwriting. When I complained to the teacher, she was not able to give me a valid explanation. I had to retake that ridiculous subject and pass an oral exam where I showed her how much I actually knew about it. © Romina Victoria Juárez / Facebook
• My physical education teacher told me I had the grace of an elephant on the balance beam. Fast forward 20-plus years, and she’s sitting in my station in the restaurant. I know she was embarrassed when I brought it up. I’m sure she didn’t remember. I told her that although I never forgot, I forgave her. © Lana Sadler / Facebook

• I had some great teachers, but my 5th-grade teacher scarred me to this day. She formed a choir with all the children in the class and when we started singing, she stopped us in the middle and, in front of everyone, she called me out, and said loudly: “You can’t sing, you sound horrible.” Result: even when I’m at home, if I want to sing, I do it when no one is there. I am 70 years old. © Liliana Frencia / Facebook
• In high school, I had a typing teacher who, because I had done my homework on pink paper, tore it up without checking it and gave me a zero. She was always very rude to me, treated me badly, and years later I found out that she had a rivalry with my mom and took it out on me. It was nerve-wracking to go into her class since I didn’t know under what pretext she would scold me in front of everyone. © Verónica Aké / Facebook
• I was 5 years old and in the first grade. Our teacher taught us more than what the program required so that we would learn to read and write earlier. She wanted us to be ahead of the other classes at the same level. One day, the school principal found out, so she took away the notebooks from all the students and tore the pages up in front of us. © Anabel Rosas / Facebook

• The principal sabotaged me when I won a prize in history that they always gave out at the end of every school year. She did it only because I never wore my uniform pants. She hated me, but she could never expel me because I was on the honor roll. What did hurt me was that for the same reason she wouldn’t allow me to go on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. © David Cariño / Facebook
• There was a teacher who gave a classmate of mine the highest grade every time. We all knew she was never very good, and although I was a good student, my exams always had something wrong with them. Anyway, I let it go. At the end of the year, my mom came in to ask the teacher something and saw how she was trying on the jewelry that the other student’s mother had given her for being “so good to her daughter.” That’s when we understood everything. © Patricia Salas Lestrange / Facebook
• When I was in elementary school, we had to attend Music Education, and my family made a huge effort to afford to buy a flute for me. One day, a classmate took it from me on the sly and began to play with it as if it were a sword, to which a teacher, who had had it with him, took the flute thinking it was his and broke it. When I told the teacher the flute was mine, he also punished me, blaming me for everything. Needless to say, my mom made a huge fuss and the school ended up buying a new flute for me. © Silvana Lagos / Facebook

• I was in fifth grade, and a teacher gave us an activity to do before recess. Some friends and I stayed because we hadn’t finished the activity. But after a few minutes, she told us to go out to lunch. When we returned to the classroom, she gave us a report for not finishing the activity when she had told us we could go out. The next day, my mom went to talk to her and had the nerve to say that she had given me the report not for not completing the activity but for being the quietest student. Her argument was that she wanted to show the whole class that she could report everyone, without exception. © Gabriela Mar / Facebook
• I was in fifth grade, and I was almost 10 years old. The teacher from that year never liked me, and she was always looking for excuses to give me a bad grade. One day, I missed school because my grandfather had had an incident. When the teacher asked me why I didn’t go, I told her it was because my grandfather was sick. With a hurtful tone, she replied, “Are you a nurse?” © Kary Gaytán / Facebook
• I had a science teacher tell my mom, in front of me, that I would never be any good in science and never be an “A” student. I have 2 science degrees, and I did get 2 B’s. The rest were all “A’s”. It took a long time to recover from that statement. © Shauna P Rawlinson / Facebook

• My son has Asperger’s, and the first year of elementary school was a nightmare. Every day, the teacher would ask other kids to tell me my son was misbehaving. They would also bully him; it was very frustrating. Finally, I decided to change schools. Today, my son is 16 years old, and he still doesn’t like to remember that time. However, we have also come across wonderful teachers who were truly interested in helping him understand himself. © Mayra L Villegas / Facebook
• When I was 9 years old, I had a teacher who, every day at 3:30 in the afternoon, gave us something to read so that we would be silent because he had a TV in the classroom and it was time for the news. © Ana Leira Terceiro / Facebook
• When my little brother was in elementary school, a teacher wrote him this note on a school report: “He is a lousy student, he won’t achieve anything in life, but you have to understand him, he’s a boy from the ’hood’.” I’d like to see that teacher’s face today when he learns that this kid from the hood studied with a full scholarship in Japan and is a music teacher; in fact, one that his students appreciate very much, and one that on Teachers’ Day has no room left to keep the many gifts he receives from them. © Nirurka Aleyka Mendoza / Facebook
• I was a shampoo girl at a salon after school, and one of my more horrible teachers used this salon. So I would always pull her hair more than needed during shampoos. Petty 16-year-old me. © singlebananas / Reddit

What experience will you never forget from your time at school? What do you think a teacher must have to be able to teach in the best way?