$Million Artwork Damaged by Cleaning Lady

[Nene]

Mine was the worst, for so many reasons I mean the place was a joke.

They messed me up good when I first entered school; I was a bubbly talkative social kid, now I’m very quiet and shy in public I can’t really interact with others. I mean why do these people become involved with teaching children if they’re going to f*ck up lives

Ugh that's terrible. x.x I guess a similar thing happened to me, I remember my school gave me more negative reinforcement than positive which just doesn't work with some kids (well, most kids right?). It makes you less likely to try for fear of failing and doesn't teach that crucial life skill of perseverance. As kids you need to learn a sense of judgment which involves making silly mistakes.. to make kids feel bad over them is pretty damaging in the long run. One silly example I can immediately think of is when a class helper told me off for doing an insignificant painting "wrong". As if 8 year olds have sound judgment already built into them from birth.

But then I guess it prepares you for the nervous wreck that is high school where everything is "do this or get a detention" and "even if you do revise all night and get a low score, you still get a detention". Talk about teaching kids to rebel against the system.

If we ran a school, it would be awesome.

[D123]

I’ll come up with a tissue collage made up of used tissues THAT’LL make me famous I'll call it "runny nose" my "inner struggle" with the snot

I'll make a splash painting with my projectile vomit and some regurgitated pepto-bizmal, and we can call it a series.

Oh Yeah! Sounds like a plan!!

Mine was the worst, for so many reasons I mean the place was a joke.

They messed me up good when I first entered school; I was a bubbly talkative social kid, now I’m very quiet and shy in public I can’t really interact with others. I mean why do these people become involved with teaching children if they’re going to f*ck up lives

Ugh that's terrible. x.x I guess a similar thing happened to me, I remember my school gave me more negative reinforcement than positive which just doesn't work with some kids (well, most kids right?). It makes you less likely to try for fear of failing and doesn't teach that crucial life skill of perseverance. As kids you need to learn a sense of judgment which involves making silly mistakes.. to make kids feel bad over them is pretty damaging in the long run. One silly example I can immediately think of is when a class helper told me off for doing an insignificant painting "wrong". As if 8 year olds have sound judgment already built into them from birth

Yes especially when you’re very sensitive, that doesn’t work you only emotionally scar and damage them

I remember some terrible things with the teachers. One can I remember is a teacher screaming in my face like freak’in ogre, this was around 8 as well. Like an inch away from my face spitting on me and when I say ogre I mean it, she wasn’t one of those pretty young teachers. I was trying to explain nicely to her a mistake I made (like my mom would always say explain) and she took it as “talking back”

there was only one teacher out of there I loved she was very kind and nurturing she never yelled at you and was understanding , I wish they were all like her.

But then I guess it prepares you for the nervous wreck that is high school where everything is "do this or get a detention" and "even if you do revise all night and get a low score, you still get a detention". Talk about teaching kids to rebel against the system.

and what does detention teach? I mean if a kid is struggling with learning how is detention going to help them? Yeah punish the kids that have a hard time learning, what they’re doing in these schools with children and teens is wrong, and there is any wonder with all the school violence..

If we ran a school, it would be awesome.

Yes it would be, and I would teach the children! One of the reasons it was so terrible is because when we went to the next school (middle school) we didn’t know a thing. I mean even the teachers were like “what have they been doing with these kids?”, we were totally unprepared

[Shampoo]

I remember some terrible things with the teachers. One can I remember is a teacher screaming in my face like freak’in ogre, this was around 8 as well. Like an inch away from my face spitting on me and when I say ogre I mean it, she wasn’t one of those pretty young teachers. I was trying to explain nicely to her a mistake I made (like my mom would always say explain) and she took it as “talking back”

there was only one teacher out of there I loved she was very kind and nurturing she never yelled at you and was understanding , I wish they were all like her.

Yikes! I'm a bit surprised to hear your education was so lousy
considering I've heard and read that NJ (along w/ MA)
are always on the best-of/high-rank lists in regards to school districts.

[D123]

I remember some terrible things with the teachers. One can I remember is a teacher screaming in my face like freak’in ogre, this was around 8 as well. Like an inch away from my face spitting on me and when I say ogre I mean it, she wasn’t one of those pretty young teachers. I was trying to explain nicely to her a mistake I made (like my mom would always say explain) and she took it as “talking back”

there was only one teacher out of there I loved she was very kind and nurturing she never yelled at you and was understanding , I wish they were all like her.

Yikes! I'm a bit surprised to hear your education was so lousy
considering I've heard and read that NJ (along w/ MA)
are always on the best-of/high-rank lists in regards to school districts.

Yeah, I laugh when I hear how great the education/schools are here.
Maybe it’s just my town? Anyway I would never recommend that elementary school to ANYONE. Not only the teachers but the principal really sucked too. She was infamous for being well.. the devil (she looked it too ) so she was NOT nice whatsoever and she’s working with kids, Seriously? She needs to be working with teens and young adults then, young children don’t need that.

[Nene]

I remember some terrible things with the teachers. One can I remember is a teacher screaming in my face like freak’in ogre, this was around 8 as well. Like an inch away from my face spitting on me and when I say ogre I mean it, she wasn’t one of those pretty young teachers. I was trying to explain nicely to her a mistake I made (like my mom would always say explain) and she took it as “talking back”

Yeah she needs to not work with kids. I don't understand why some adults feel the need to be "superior" over young children.

I remember two teachers at my school (also not particularly young or pretty XD) who seemed to get pleasure in setting me up for a fall which could be classed as bullying these days. I used to get regular panic attacks from around age 8 so I found it hard to go into school anyway. I used to therefore miss out on a lot of class/home work and I remember these two teachers purposely telling me the day before or the same day, that a specific piece of very important work needed completing and that everyone else already had a month to complete it. I was even threatened that if I didn't get it done, the head teacher would come round and tell me off. No one seemed to care that I was having a panic attack right then. I'd never dream of sending a child to the schools I went to lol!

there was only one teacher out of there I loved she was very kind and nurturing she never yelled at you and was understanding , I wish they were all like her.

Aw I had one teacher like that too but I only had her for a year. I tried to see if she was on Facebook but to no avail. She could tell that having panic attacks at 8 years old wasn't normal and used to try her best to make fun activities for me (i.e. the painting exercise that the class helper ruined but the teacher did pull her aside and warn her to be more gentle with me).

and what does detention teach? I mean if a kid is struggling with learning how is detention going to help them? Yeah punish the kids that have a hard time learning, what they’re doing in these schools with children and teens is wrong, and there is any wonder with all the school violence..

When it gets to the stage where you're getting detentions for no reason (class detentions were the worst), it really just opened my eyes up to the dictatorship that was happening at my high school. It was no longer about learning but about surviving without getting blamed for something you either didn't do or that you had no control over. I learnt 2 years of classwork in the 2-3 weeks before my final exams just by downloading the material from official websites and reading it. Passed every exam and learnt more in 2 weeks than I ever did in my entire attendance at school. Just goes to show that kids really don't need all this hassle whilst trying to learn, especially the good kids. I think the teachers used to punish the good kids for silly reasons purely because the "bad" ones didn't give two figs about what they said and they wanted to reclaim some power back. Teachers who acted like that lost all my respect though.

One of the reasons it was so terrible is because when we went to the next school (middle school) we didn’t know a thing. I mean even the teachers were like “what have they been doing with these kids?”, we were totally unprepared

Wow that really is bad. I think they at least tried to slip in some education amongst the abuse during my early schooling lol.



But on the up-side, yesterday I received one of my diplomas for the home study courses I'm doing so that was really awesome. Learning without all that unnecessary stress and hassle really is fun.

[sensei]

Teaching in a classroom really involves a thick skin. It probably took me ten years to let the kind of disrespectful behavior I had to compete with roll off of me. Disrespectful kids have a certain charisma, and if the teacher is no more than a solid professional trying to present the material in a clear, organized way, engaging in the fun of not-so-covert rebellion is a lot more attractive.

It would be very easy for a less experienced or less mature teacher build up so much internal frustration that it begins to vent even vs. the students who are there because they want to learn, or at least haven't made up their minds whether to "buy" the class or not. I had to learn to laugh internally at the "bad kids" who were having a good time wasting their time, money, and brains. They are the ones you see on national TV rioting because my (former) university fired a football coach for letting a friend of his rape young boys. First things first: fun trumps even basic morals.

Frankly, I think part of teacher training ought to include the psychological training, internal and external, needed to deal with the constant pressure of "baby-sitting" people in the classroom who do not want to be there and resent you for making them sit there. At present, it really takes a saint to cope with it. It is one of the dubious joys of moving to online teaching that such persons simply aren't in your face any more.

I hear D123 and Nene, and feel sorry that they had experiences that raise such bitterness, even now. I could relate similar ones myself from my grade- and high-school memories. But I also feel sorry for the professionals who take a job they expect they will love and then are driven to the point that they mentally wound the minds they have been commissioned to nurture.

[Nene]

Frankly, I think part of teacher training ought to include the psychological training, internal and external, needed to deal with the constant pressure of "baby-sitting" people in the classroom who do not want to be there and resent you for making them sit there. At present, it really takes a saint to cope with it. It is one of the dubious joys of moving to online teaching that such persons simply aren't in your face any more.

I completely agree, I found that about 80% of the kids in my class in high school just didn't want to be there and would act up constantly. I had one science/IT teacher who was really great and she had no problem with throwing kids out the classroom if they didn't want to learn (something that the school didn't like at all). But due to OFSTED here, the school has to get a good score which involves somehow making those kids who don't want to learn actually learn enough to give the school a good reputation. In the process, us "good" kids were pretty much kicked to the side.

A separate issue for me is the lack of direction that was given, at least in my high school when I was attending. It would have been nice to have more options than just working towards getting into a university. Other options such as apprenticeships might give kids some kind of direction to focus their lives towards. I think this current government mentioned about creating more apprenticeships so maybe we're getting there at last. I only recently discovered a college in London that I would have loved to attend if I lived closer but I never even knew it existed. It would have been possible before I moved four years ago but travel would be too expensive now so I'm doing the long distance courses in a similar field to what the college teaches anyway. But yeah, I think if kids are given the resources to plan ahead about what to do after high school, it might cut back just a little on those who don't want to be in the classroom.

[D123]

I used to get regular panic attacks from around age 8 so I found it hard to go into school anyway

Sounds like me, I never had panic attacks and I may have never showed it but I’m a very nervous person. I was always scared in school, a lot of the time I felt like I was going to have a heart attack

I'd never dream of sending a child to the schools I went to lol!

One of the reasons (although minor) I’m not having children is because of these schools. Why bring a messed up life into the world?

But on the up-side, yesterday I received one of my diplomas for the home study courses I'm doing so that was really awesome. Learning without all that unnecessary stress and hassle really is fun.

Congratulations!!! Learning should be fun it’s a shame how all the factors at school ruin it

I hear D123 and Nene, and feel sorry that they had experiences that raise such bitterness, even now. I could relate similar ones myself from my grade- and high-school memories. But I also feel sorry for the professionals who take a job they expect they will love and then are driven to the point that they mentally wound the minds they have been commissioned to nurture.

I have more than bitterness I have deep wounds I’m still getting over and putting behind me

I don’t have ANY sympathy for these people but I think going into a job like this you would have to be prepared for the troubles of misbehaving etc. of certain students. Going into it and thinking there wouldn’t be any is naïve but I’m talking about the first levels of teaching, even so there children not teens, not adults you should know what you’re going into. My most tormented time with teachers was from grades 1-3. I don’t think this is right and just to clarify I wasn’t one of those bad kids in class I was very respectful and serious about learning but I did have a lot of trouble learning.

My most tormented time with teachers was from grades 1-3.

Especially from the one teacher, the first teacher I EVER had she likes to destroy children that are happy and talkative. My mom noticed a change in me from then on and all these years later by talking with people whose children had her, realized this. My neighbor’s child had the same problem with her she was happy and liked to talk but liked to ask a lot of questions, I believe asking question is all about learning right? I’m not sure but I believe she was very resilient and didn’t let her affect her. Unfortunately, my flame was snuffed and now I am a quiet timid person around people who can’t talk and is very shy. That’s something I will need help conquering now, something like that shouldn’t be working with children

I can remember her isolating me from class for something silly and I was sobbing so hard with my head down on the desk while we had art class and the art teacher came in and said what’s wrong with her and the students said “oh she was bad” I believe the art teacher gave me a piece of paper and crayons to make me feel better but she had to take it away and they all had to ignored me, while I was so upset sobbing. I wish I had told my mother because no parent would stand for it. Not only did I have to contend with this from teachers but I was always bullied and had no friends and was growing up AND had the worst bullsh*t of my life with my family, my mother’s family and my father’s family, I am still dealing with today. My life wasn’t then and never will be the cookie cutter white picket fence and these people have helped disturb me

I also can’t really remember any problem there with students in class so that didn’t add to any “frustrations” they may have had, a lot of them there were just mean-spirited people

I wouldn’t call these people professionals either if you want to know how bad the kindergarten and grade school was, I will tell you I didn’t know my ABC’s until well after grade school until I taught myself, I also couldn’t get the times tables down and didn’t fully know them.

Sorry to rant a bit but this isn’t a subject I take lightly, I am aware you’re a teacher and see a different side of things and I mean no disrespect to you at all. But that school I attended well.. I’m sure you get the picture

[cutiebunny]

But due to OFSTED here, the school has to get a good score which involves somehow making those kids who don't want to learn actually learn enough to give the school a good reputation. In the process, us "good" kids were pretty much kicked to the side.

Dear god, yes...the "team" projects. I hated team projects, and to this day, I still hate them. That's because I, someone who works hard, was always placed with those who were at the opposite end of the spectrum. And then, in order to make the honors student do everyone's work, the teacher would saddle you by telling you that your grade depended on that of the group, meaning that you would do 10x the work that your other team members would do. I remember asking my teachers, outright in class, if it was possible to put the smart and/or hard-working people together in groups of their ilk, and allowing the stupid and/or lazy kids to be in their own group, citing that if things did not change, I would have to end up doing their work as well as mine.

Can't understand why I got detention that day

Whenever my teachers would assign these projects, I would purposely act up. I'd give my teachers the bird, and if my teammates didn't contribute, I would fail to do their part. In many cases, I would give blank 3x5 cards to those in my group who failed to participate, and when they asked where their presentation was, I'd tell them that I assumed that they did it on their own because they never showed up for study sessions.

My teachers were a mixed lot, and just like real life, there were some good teachers, some meh teachers, and some teachers who should be kept as far away as possible from the profession. Maybe we should create a teacher horror story thread. I have lots of stories, and I'm sure some of you do too. Misery loves company!

[D123]

I wanted to say in my last post, I was venting which felt good, I’ve never talked much about it to anyone.

I feel I’ve finally moved on but looking back it does hurt I was never strong as I am now, I was a flower always wilt so to speak. I can’t forgive but I’ve chosen to forget, I can’t and don’t live in that past. What happened, it’s only made me a stronger person.

I am sorry if I came off unpleasant in any way, my social skills can kind of suck

I’m never mean to others either but I can get debatable which can seem like fighting

I remember asking my teachers, outright in class, if it was possible to put the smart and/or hard-working people together in groups of their ilk, and allowing the stupid and/or lazy kids to be in their own group, citing that if things did not change, I would have to end up doing their work as well as mine.

Can't understand why I got detention that day

Whenever my teachers would assign these projects, I would purposely act up. I'd give my teachers the bird, and if my teammates didn't contribute, I would fail to do their part. In many cases, I would give blank 3x5 cards to those in my group who failed to participate, and when they asked where their presentation was, I'd tell them that I assumed that they did it on their own because they never showed up for study sessions.

My teachers were a mixed lot, and just like real life, there were some good teachers, some meh teachers, and some teachers who should be kept as far away as possible from the profession. Maybe we should create a teacher horror story thread. I have lots of stories, and I'm sure some of you do too. Misery loves company!

LOL, I love your personality I wish I had that back in school

[sensei]

No offense taken. As noted, I have some nasty memories of grade school "education" that I could share, as well as some memorable moments in high school. Probably there are some people out there for whom their "horror story" of college education has Prof. Sensei as the key character. But I think at least we kept our Liz's appetite for learning alive. And while I'm not sure, I think the rough play I used to do with our still-long-lamented kitty Oliver taught him the basics of how to catch and kill small prey.

I agree with Nene that college is often over-rated as the logical place for high school students to go straight into after their senior year. My best students were either people who had taken a year or two off to work or who had spent time in the military. Both knew why they were in my class and what they wanted me to teach them. Many of the others were there, as a cynical colleague put it, because our campus was "the inexpensive alternative to institutionalization."

It is true that I was visited by the case worker for one of my students, who told me that they had spent a lot of time getting him from a "drooling, unresponsive" state to a point where he could attend college classes as the first step to "mainstreaming," i.e., living without constant mental health supervision. I was cautioned not to be too demanding, lest he start to backslide. (He actually did better than some of my alleged "normals.")

[D123]

No offense taken.

I'm glad

Probably there are some people out there for whom their "horror story" of college education has Prof. Sensei as the key character.

No! I can't believe that.

[sensei]

Probably there are some people out there for whom their "horror story" of college education has Prof. Sensei as the key character.

No! I can't believe that.

I think I still have the evaluation that starts "Professor [Sensei] is the worst teacher I have ever had or even heard of!" My supervisor commented, after reading through them, "Well, they sure didn't like you much ... but these are the best written course evaluations I got this year." (I was teaching "Introduction to Writing.")

[cutiebunny]

My mom taught kindergarten and first grade. She'd always pick me up after school and prior to going to college, I saw a lot of what she did. You'll never catch me saying that teachers don't earn their salary. It seemed like almost on a daily basis that even though the kids had long left the room, mom was still working on lesson plans, correcting and whatever else she had to do.

I think that the American mentality in regards to teachers is not correct. In some societies, being a teacher is considered to be a very good and honorable profession. In the US, we seem them more as overpaid babysitters. In college, though, I remember choosing my classes more because of the professor and less of the subject. Though the time slot was also very influential...no 8am classes for me!I mean, how many people really care about economics prior to the Industrial Revolution? But the professor was great and it would eliminate another requirement, so, Caveman Currency I took.

Oooh...professor evals. I loved those! I always made sure my criticism was constructive, rather than the typical "I hate Professor X because he was a douchebag!"...'cept for the time I had an economics teacher whose normal talking voice sounded like nails running down the chalkboard. I think I suggested she go the Steven Hawking route...

LOL, I love your personality I wish I had that back in school

Really? I had several teachers tell me I was a little punk. Frankly, I just don't see it

But I do have the illustrious honor of having one of my teachers (the same one that I 'casually' suggested that we should pair dummies with dummies for group projects) see me in a grocery store and run out the other door.

How many people can say that about their education experience

[D123]

Probably there are some people out there for whom their "horror story" of college education has Prof. Sensei as the key character.

No! I can't believe that.

I think I still have the evaluation that starts "Professor [Sensei] is the worst teacher I have ever had or even heard of!" My supervisor commented, after reading through them, "Well, they sure didn't like you much ... but these are the best written course evaluations I got this year." (I was teaching "Introduction to Writing.")

lol, I can’t say I blame a college professor though.. A lot of the young kids or whatever you call them don’t realize life. Their partys, sports, clicks whatever doesn’t mean a thing they have no clue about the struggle to keep a roof over your head, working to survive and you need that piece of paper from schooling to survive.

LOL, I love your personality I wish I had that back in school

Really? I had several teachers tell me I was a little punk. Frankly, I just don't see it

Punk? That’s called a low bullshit tolerance

But I do have the illustrious honor of having one of my teachers (the same one that I 'casually' suggested that we should pair dummies with dummies for group projects) see me in a grocery store and run out the other door.

How many people can say that about their education experience

Haha, That is awesome