20 Reports That Show There Are Also Toxic Teachers

School is where it all begins! We make friends, learn about the world, and become citizens. Many of our memories come from that time – and much of it driven by teachers. Sometimes they are not exactly positive and inspiring, but they still help to show how we shouldn’t behave at work, with our family or in our friendships, right?

And, as we imagine that everyone has such a story to tell, the awesome.club searched for reports from Internet users who had, at least, remarkable experiences with a teacher. We made a selection of stories that could be in the memories of many of us. Check it out!

I had a photography teacher who was known to be impatient and cruel, and would often yell at anyone who upset her even a little bit. I made the mistake of accidentally pissing her off the first week, and that was it. She often yelled at me, criticized my work, and never offered me help. As far as I know, she even made fun of me behind my back to other classmates, calling me stupid. The following year, I dropped the class and switched to another, which genuinely upset her. She called my parents and lied that she was “very disappointed” and that she was “very impressed with my work”. It was the first time I heard her say that. Then she wouldn’t leave me alone and kept trying to get me to go back to her class. © RadAustin / Reddit

She hated boys and loved girls. Some girls were going through the teacher’s computer files while she was out of class, and when she came back, she thought it was hilarious. A friend of mine was just taking off his sweatshirt while the teacher was teaching, and just seeing the movement, she automatically turned around and yelled “IT’S SUSPENDED!!!” © JakeBo16 / Reddit

I was really, really good at math—I was second or third in the class of high achievers in the subject. The smartest one (a personal friend of mine) was the teacher’s favorite. I won the teacher’s favorite in a national math competition and was top of the school. The teacher told the class the story: “If you give a typewriter to a thousand monkeys for a thousand years, the Law of Averages says that one of them will accidentally type a Shakespeare play.” For those who didn’t understand what he was trying to say was simply that “if you guess the answers, sooner or later you will get lucky”. Know that I didn’t guess any of the answers. © Captain_Coco_Koala / Reddit

I was an avid reader as a kid. We were presenting our book summaries and another kid did The Fellowship of the Ring — it sounded like the coolest book I’d ever heard of (this was before the movies). When it came time to choose a book to read for our next summary I chose this book. My teacher told me that I couldn’t choose this one because it was too hard for me. I said I could read. He opened to a random page and said if I could read it aloud he would let me choose the book. I read but mispronounced “Saruman” (remember this was pre-films — so the names weren’t common). I read the rest without a hitch, but once I got to the wizard’s name, he closed the book, corrected my pronunciation, and told me I wasn’t ready. Since my parents were always happy to buy me books, I went to the bookstore and bought and read the entire trilogy before the school year ended. I still get mad when I think about it. © StanePantsen / Reddit

I had a teacher in high school who had a reputation for being hated. On that particular occasion, she accused me of having my cell phone in class, only it was in my locker the entire time. When she said she didn’t have the phone, she told me to go outside, open my locker and get the phone inside. The look on her face when she saw that her cell phone was in the closet was priceless. © _Luh_Lambo_ / Reddit

This happened when I was very young — I remember that on my first day at school, I told the teacher that I learned to read before going to school because my mother also taught — she was a teacher. But she was 5 years old and could only read simple words, like sun, cat, those things… She said: “Oh, can you read? Then read this!” and she gave me a regular adult book. So when I couldn’t read that, she made fun of the situation and even made fun of me in the canteen later. © sqinky96 / Reddit

I had a geometry teacher in 6th grade who was very impatient. One day, she solved an exercise on the blackboard, but made a mistake in putting the formula together. I raised my hand and said that she had switched the signs (which changed the result). Then she started ranting and said, “I’m an architect and you haven’t even made it out of school yet. Do you want to compete with me?” I just kept thinking how she expected an 11-12 year old child to have already managed to leave school… I still remember her before demanding “experience” from younger people.

My junior high math teacher probably knew less than the whole class. He couldn’t teach math, he couldn’t control our class, and he spoke repeatedly about what it was like to be an athlete on a college team. That was our year of self-study! © luke_austin / Reddit

We had a substitute teacher who stayed with the class almost the whole year, during the main teacher’s maternity leave. Most of the time he was fine, but he wasn’t cut out to be a teacher. He didn’t know how to teach, gave random grades and made fun of the kids. Once, a girl made a mistake and he started saying things to her like, “Oh my, I’m a crybaby!” She replied that it was the teacher who was acting like a child and ended up being “summoned for a conversation” with him in the hallway. © iam***of***hoo / Reddit

I had a high school German teacher who was very fond of reminding students that he had a PhD. He loved the sound of his own voice so much that he never realized we could ask any question about literally anything and he would talk about it for hours. One day, we decided to see if we could waste the ENTIRE class period. And we did that with a question: “Can you explain what your dissertation was about?” Proud high school moment! © hoyitil555 / Reddit

I had a French teacher who didn’t know French and kicked out students he didn’t like at the beginning of class. He was also a director and he was very strict about hair length for the boys. One day, he tried to arrest a student and shave his head, because his hair was too long for his standards. © ErikaPEI / Reddit

My sister had a 6th grade teacher who was the mother of one of her classmates—and this girl was popular at school. My sister wanted to celebrate her birthday at an all-girls party. She handed out the invitations and was very excited. Friday arrived and no one showed up. On Monday morning, my sister had to go to school and face everyone, which is pretty traumatic in itself. In line, this teacher approached my sister and said, in front of everyone: “Do you know why no one came to your party? Because I threw my daughter a party the same day and made sure no one told her about it.” © nomih85085 / Reddit

One of my Social Studies professors always spoke in a very harsh tone and made students listen out of fear, not interest. One time he was showing something on a map on the big screen while we had to follow along on our computers. I looked straight ahead for just a second and he immediately started yelling at me, “Is your computer not working?” I said, “No, there’s nothing wrong with him.” And he went on: “Then why are you looking over here?” © 2004_PS2_Slim / Reddit

In the first year of college, in the Biology class, there was a teacher who demanded that all papers be delivered in print. We had a research paper to do throughout the semester. I handed mine in with all the other students and went on my way. When she returned them a few weeks later, she didn’t hand over mine. I waited until after class and asked where my work was. She stared at me flatly and said, “You didn’t deliver one.” And she even said that she was surprised because I had, until then, the highest grade in the class. She couldn’t find the job and I had to turn to the head of the department. There were no resources and I had to do extra work so I wouldn’t lose my grade. © Barfelmet / Reddit

In the last year of college, I had a course that was totally practical. The classes were only for the teacher to give the orientation for the activity of that week. So, I explained to him that my routine was hectic because of work and asked if I could just hand in the activities (if I had any doubts, I would go to class). He agreed and so we did. At the end of the semester, when the grades came out in the system, I discovered that he failed me for absences. I went looking for him and reminded him of our arrangement. He replied: “I said that you could be absent and not that I would give you attendance”.

The department director at the college was called in to teach one of the classes. She proceeded to berate and belittle us every time we were in the room. She said that her subject was so difficult that none of us would be able to pass. Usually, she did her best to discourage us. She authored everything we needed for the class. She wrote the book, she did the slides… everything we had to buy had her name on it. And the subject was stupidly easy. © SivarisStormscale / Reddit

Amazing how some stories seem to repeat themselves, isn’t it? Thankfully, most of these reports no longer happen frequently. And did you have any outstanding teachers? Tell us in the comments tab.