Teachers who torment children
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I stood just inside the classroom door at my junior school with a miserable look on my face. My mother was talking to my teacher about my schoolwork. The teacher looked at me in a patronising way and said the words that will be imprinted in my memory until the day I die, "If she can't spell now, she will NEVER be able to spell." Tears welled in my six year-old eyes. I felt doomed. |
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Skip a few years forward to when I was about nine. I was chosen to sing a solo In the school concert over another girl called Alex. She was furious with this and made my life hell. I was depressed and thinking about suicide, but her taunts went on and on until one day I snapped. She was in the middle of teasing me about something or other and I just couldn't take it anymore so I pulled my arm back and gave her a huge SLAP across the face. She just stood there staring at me. "That's how you make me feel!" I yelled at her and then ran away crying. |
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Later in the day I was called to her class by the teacher and forced to apologise to her in front of her class. The teacher didn't even appear to be interested in my side of the story, she just believed her favourite student. I remember everyone staring at me and feeling like I wanted to die. Skip forward some more years to when I was in middle school. This boy called Euan rang me up and bullied me into prank calling one of our teachers. I really didn't want to do this and felt terrible about it later, but peer pressure can be quite overwhelming. I confessed what had happened to my mum who called the teacher and apologised for me. Apparently all was well and he said that he wouldn't mention it. So I thought it was over - until the next day at school. He stood me up in front of the whole class and interrogated me about what happened. That was bad enough, but he then proceeded to yell at me and say horrible cruel things that made me feel even worse. The final straw was when he told all the other teachers about it and by then I hated myself so much that I came home in tears. My mum was very angry at him because he told her one thing and did another and the school principal couldn't do anything about it. So basically it was all forgotten by everyone except me. I never did receive any kind of apology. I am in high school now and looking back I am disgusted at how these "professionals in education" got away with such cruelty. I am 15 now so it wasn't exactly a long time ago and these events have had a profound effect on my state of mind. For a while I lapsed into a serious depression and thought frequently about taking my own life. My parents didn't notice because I hid it well enough for them to think that it was "just hormones". I came very close several times and if I didn't have my best friend John around, I would probably be just another statistic. You may think that things like this don't go on nowadays, but how sure are you? By: Luna_papilio |
Comments from visitors
Sorry didn't read the full post properly, the Guardian reader part was in the original post. Oh well, you must be rubbing off on me.
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Nope not a Guardian reader, The Independent actually.
I stand by what I said, bullies occur in all areas of life therefore some will be teachers. Whilst a lot of stories about pupils being bullied will be just that, stories, that doesn't mean that others are not true. As I said previously there is a difference between punishment and bullying and the latter should not be tolerated.
By the way, I'm always happy, it's just the kind of person that I am.
I stand by what I said, bullies occur in all areas of life therefore some will be teachers. Whilst a lot of stories about pupils being bullied will be just that, stories, that doesn't mean that others are not true. As I said previously there is a difference between punishment and bullying and the latter should not be tolerated.
By the way, I'm always happy, it's just the kind of person that I am.
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Diddums, let us not learn (recte) teach the brats to respect their teacher, just let them do what they like, then they can grow up to be the next generation they (recte) that........... (one you missed)......... respects (recte) respect nothing and wants (recte) want everything.
Guardian reader?
Happy now you nit picka
Guardian reader?
Happy now you nit picka
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@Stalag 14. For starters, "teach the brats" not "learn the brats". Also you should have missed the "s" off "respects" and "wants". Someone should have paid more attention.
Pupils should respect their teachers, I respected mine but respect is not automatic it is earned. Bullying occurs in all walks of life, it is inevitable that you will have some teachers that bully pupils. Just because one has not witnessed something in person does not mean that it doesn't happen. I haven't witnessed a car accident but I'm pretty certain they happen all the time.
Teachers have a duty to ensure that pupils feel safe in their learning environment, insulting a pupil doesn't do this. For instance telling a pupil that they will "never" spell is hardly helpful, why not suggest extra help so that they LEARN to spell correctly, see I used the word in the correct place.
The argument that corporal punishment is the best way is in my opinion null and void, did people still go to prison when they left school, yes so what did they learn from being physically punished? The problem is respect and bullying a pupil does not develop respect, treating someone like they actually have feelings does. Anybody that feels the need to insult or humiliate a child deserves not respect what so ever.
I came through the school system in the 90s, no physical punishment, no real humiliation, sure I got into trouble and I was punished but never humiliated, there is a difference and i turned out perfectly well. Bullying and punishment are not the same thing, you can be punished without being bullied.
Pupils should respect their teachers, I respected mine but respect is not automatic it is earned. Bullying occurs in all walks of life, it is inevitable that you will have some teachers that bully pupils. Just because one has not witnessed something in person does not mean that it doesn't happen. I haven't witnessed a car accident but I'm pretty certain they happen all the time.
Teachers have a duty to ensure that pupils feel safe in their learning environment, insulting a pupil doesn't do this. For instance telling a pupil that they will "never" spell is hardly helpful, why not suggest extra help so that they LEARN to spell correctly, see I used the word in the correct place.
The argument that corporal punishment is the best way is in my opinion null and void, did people still go to prison when they left school, yes so what did they learn from being physically punished? The problem is respect and bullying a pupil does not develop respect, treating someone like they actually have feelings does. Anybody that feels the need to insult or humiliate a child deserves not respect what so ever.
I came through the school system in the 90s, no physical punishment, no real humiliation, sure I got into trouble and I was punished but never humiliated, there is a difference and i turned out perfectly well. Bullying and punishment are not the same thing, you can be punished without being bullied.
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Diddums, let us not learn the brats to respect their teacher, just let them do what they like, then they can grow up to be the next generation they respects nothing and wants everything.
Guardian reader?
Guardian reader?
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I have started as a newly qualified teaching assistant in a state junior school and assist in a yr 3 class (7-8 year olds). I have to be honest and say I am SHOCKED at the way the teacher speaks and shouts at the"army major" behaviour to the terrified little persons. Okay there is 30 in the class and obviously they talk, giggle and fidget - but that is all ! Every few minutes, a pupil is picked out and shouted at in front of the whold class , tere is no respcet whatsoever for the children. I am shocked and trying to be as kind as i can to the pupils. One little girl cuddles me and asks if I am going to be in the next day. I feel it is not my place to challenge this behaviour as it seems to be in the culture of the teaching at this school (rated excellent by Ofsted !) Ps i would never want my own child treated like this. There should be cctv in the classrooms asap.
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oh god reading this i recall 1 terrible event from my school days.. I was called to the principal.. once at the principals office i was told for 30 minutes that i had beat up some kid.. they didnt ask me, they just repeatedly told me that i did it, and coaxed me into confessing..
apparantly the kid that got beat up was too scared to confront me, else he could have confirmed that it wasnt me that beat him up, but another boy with the 1st name michael
on the bright side, i did get an apology, however till this day (10 yrs later) it still bothers me.. this has thought me how (dumb) people with authorothy think.. and i'd suggest everyone in these kind of positions to start reading comic books.. cuz every spiderman reader can say these words: with great power comes great responsibility.. and then they say comic books are bad...
apparantly the kid that got beat up was too scared to confront me, else he could have confirmed that it wasnt me that beat him up, but another boy with the 1st name michael
on the bright side, i did get an apology, however till this day (10 yrs later) it still bothers me.. this has thought me how (dumb) people with authorothy think.. and i'd suggest everyone in these kind of positions to start reading comic books.. cuz every spiderman reader can say these words: with great power comes great responsibility.. and then they say comic books are bad...
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I have an autistic spectrum disorder. As a child, a teacher in primary school told me to my face that she didn't want me in her class because I was stupid. In secondary school there was this twerp of a woodwork teacher who bullied me in his class and said I was abnormal. I told my mother about this, and she went in and 'had a word' with him. The day after, the teacher stood up in front of the class and stared at me and said that 'Child X's mother had come in and said I can carry on picking on you as much as I like.' Some days later, I had to see the headmaster for a routine meeting, and I happened to mention the things this teacher had been saying to me. Mysteriously, after this the teacher disappeared, with a rumour going round that he had 'hurt his back' and never returned. Meanwhile, I got an E at the woodwork GCSE on account of not having a teacher.
It's kind of ridiculous that someone would be idiotic enough to throw away their career like that. You'd think if he wanted to bully, he would do it discreetly, and not in front of 15 or so witnesses. It's in some way understandable, in retrospect, why children bully. All children go through emotional upheaval as they are growing up and some of them get insecure and deal with it in inappropriate ways. But for an adult to behave this way, there must be some serious maladjustment going on. Tosser.
It's kind of ridiculous that someone would be idiotic enough to throw away their career like that. You'd think if he wanted to bully, he would do it discreetly, and not in front of 15 or so witnesses. It's in some way understandable, in retrospect, why children bully. All children go through emotional upheaval as they are growing up and some of them get insecure and deal with it in inappropriate ways. But for an adult to behave this way, there must be some serious maladjustment going on. Tosser.
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Most teachers are Pedos. That's why they want to be around the young girls and boys. It's makes them feel power over the kids so they can groom them.
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That's nothing. I'm 22 years old now and back when I was younger teachers allowed such things like the whole class bullying me to continue and even did such things like make me sing in front of the whole class on my own to try and enforce it and I had one or two teachers who made my life hell in high school. One eventually got fired, presumably because someone must have had something serious to say about the way he unlawfully shouted at students (myself included) and had a habit of taking them into other classes to embarress them in front of other students once he had shouted at them in another class. I now have a panic/anxiety disorder and it's safe to say that this could have contributed to it's development. Yes, it still goes on and it's plain wrong.
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I thought kids had rights these days. I can remember being bullied & shouted at by teachers when I was at school. I vividly remember one doing her best to make me cry in front of the other kids, she was shouting "go on, cry !, but I would`nt give her the satisfaction!
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Mr. Spibey (WW) would smack you over the head as he ran past. Mr. Halogen (Maths) would rap your knuckles with his nice new six sided pencil, (no sissy round ones for us) Mr.Turner (Sci) a good egg taught us to play chess then went to sleep, Mr. Gibson (PE) strode round the hall bending a cane, as you ran on the spot, he also allowed you to eat sweets in class as long as your shared the bag with the whole class of 40. Mr. Godson, (Nature Study) & superintendent of parks & Gardens was a child molester. We were lucky I suppose the modern problems like mental cruelty and perversion had not been invented. All the time I was in school I only broke my arm once, my collar bone once (Running from Mr. Godson) had my ankle crushed once. Cuts & bruises don’t count, It sounds like you modern pupils are having a real bad time compared to the bed of roses I had. (You will get through it honest)
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I am still a student in middle school and can confirm that teachers bullying students still goes on, and more than you think. One of mine is completely racist and will randomly pick on me, she also is constantly shouting and putting me down. I try my best and stil often score better than others I my class but it still goes on.
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I believe that still does go on, some teacher even use words like weird and odd to young pupils and seem to be ok with it; it is even worse when this is reported to the deputy head teacher and that there is no come back, no apology or anything...some professionals! Sad sad sad people.
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Disillusioned - 1-Mar-11 13:40
I'm almost finished at school and I have a bit of AS and yep, I've had troubles with teachers for example in 2nd year I had a subsitute art teacher whom picked on me for no reason except for the fact that I was trying to work in a noisy crowded environment. I was upset, I didn't do anything to deserve it. I was seeing my IT teacher about a problem,and we had a good chat about it, not strict at all, it was over lunchtime. The bell had rung,my next class was at theother side of the school, and my IT teacher said sorry if you arelate, just tell them youwere with me and you'll be fine :) however, that need not be the case as the PT of the department of the class I was going to asked me why I was late (I was late by one minute) and I said I was sorry, I was willing to catch up on any work I might of missed maybe at home and explained the situation, now this teacher I know from word of mouth has a reputation for being non-approachable and hesaid that he didn't careabout what I had to say, and shoutedatme saying that I shouldn't be talking to people near the start of the period and he didn't believ eme that I was doing extra work with my IT teacher voluntarily. This teacher had picked on me before,making mean, nasty comments, and I may consider being a teacher when I'm older-I thinkmaybe an IT teacher, people with AS can be teachers, but I'm approachable and if anyone in my class is ever depressed, I'll hand them a warm smile and ask them whats wrong :) albeit I'mnot good with recognising emotions, I know if someone is intears that I should be sympathetic to them. I help fellow pupils atpresent with Visual Basic/Computing as I am obsessed with it:) some teaching professionals I have read about on this post sicken me, plenty of nice people would love to be teachers, these people don't deserve to be teachers, their cutting comments drive students to the consideration of suicide :'( however,some teachers earn my respect!! :D
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those teachers sound really mean except the 1st one sehe was just helping I think
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Man, I remember when I was in the 4th grade, our teacher gave us homework but I didn't know that we weren't suppose to do our homework in class.So I was doing mines and this girl and boy told on me. Then the teacher called me up to the class and then she tore my paper up in front of me and I was like sso upset. I was so upset that I wanted to slap her. My mom had wrote her a letter saying" Do not tear up any of my child's work again." She should have known that she was messing with the wrong person's child. But after that,that teacher's been kinda cool with me because she knew that she was dead wrong. And too, I do not like when teachers or any adult laugh and bullies along with children because it is just dead wrong. But some adults out here just don't have a clue what respect is.
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dollbabyface17 - 10-Jan-11 01:03
OK, it's a long time since I went to school - the 1960's in fact, but humiliation by some teachers was normal. Most were fine, but they all had their own form of corporal punishment, even the most delicate female teachers. Oddly enough, very few pupils had to be disciplined, as any wrong-doings were dealt with severely and no-one wanted to be beaten. Bullying was punished by the offender being given 6 strokes of the cane by the headmaster in front of the whole school. We all had to watch and decided that it wasn't for us, so bullying was practically non-existant - I only saw 2 public canings in 5 years. There was no such thing as detention - just lines (for such things as incorrect wearing of the uniform or incorrect hairstyle), or caning (for maybe forgetting to bring your P.E. kit or not doing homework). There was only one teacher who took pleasure out of punishing pupils for any reason. He would saw at the top of your ear with a ruler and then chop the ruler down hard into where you ear meets your head. He would also chop your knuckles with the edge of a ruler and draw blood - just for maybe not doing homework, or being untidy. He would have been jailed these days. Despite all of this sounding savage, I have to say that the majority of pupils got through 5 years without having to be punished at all -what we saw being done to the regular offenders was enouhg of a deterrent.
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Hi , totaly agree with you on this one , we have a seven year old son and the same type of thing is happening to him regarding the teachers . Yes he is as they say 'No angel' he@s a proper typical young boy who loves life . yes he is cheeky , sometimes naughty but he is very funny and as all children his age is very inquisitive.But he will not lie down and be picked on by either the children or the teachers ,He has his own mind .The school he is at , the teachers in front of other pupils have called him a bully and have ripped up a certificate in front of other pupils that another pupil had self made for him , is this normal practise for professional teachers to do these days? he does'nt want to go to school any more and has been in tears over it most mornings because he knows the teachers are going to blame him for whatever goes wrong . i.e : if another couple of boys start kicking and pushing him and one time punching him and busting his lip inside and out he will retaliate but then it's him who gets a detention and the other boys get let off . do we try and contact ofcom to stem this now or do you have any other ideas how to stop our son going through unfortunatly what you have had to through school years? please help
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I actually agree with this whole heartedly but its not just limited to those in teaching. Social Work is just as bad. When I was doing work experience in a school for 6 year olds, one of the young booys stated that he was getting an ear pierced. She yelled in front of the whole class "only GIRLS get their ear pierced!! youre a GIRL, isnt he, class???" I couldnt believe what /i was hearing, I reported this, but of course it was swept under the table by the crooked head teacher seeing as she was pretty and popular with the staff as she sucked up to them relentlessly....
These teachers are sociopaths and/or "psychopaths" who have no regard for other human life and torture those weaker than themseves to ensure their place in power is not threatened.
These teachers are sociopaths and/or "psychopaths" who have no regard for other human life and torture those weaker than themseves to ensure their place in power is not threatened.
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