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Original poster

Things teachers said to you as a child/teen...

59 replies

Ilovemycat13 · 31/01/2021 12:18

That have stayed with you. Inspired by another thread, and it made me think of something a previous teacher said.

I was 16-17, re taking my maths GCSE at college and struggling as I don’t like maths. Parents evening rolled around, and the teacher said to my Mother that ‘I was not good enough for the class’ and she was looking at having me removed because I would ruin her stats. I left.

10 years later I re did my maths, went back to college, and now I’m training to be a midwife. A nice big fuck you 😄

OP posts:

Buzzer3555 · 31/01/2021 12:36

I was told by the deputy head that i would "only ever be a barmaid like my mother" (i was and still am very proud of my mother)

caringcarer · 31/01/2021 12:46

When I was doing O levels years ago my Physics teacher who always favoured the boys in my class and basically ignored the girls, told my Dad at parents evening right in front of me 'your daughter doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of passing her Physics exam, and he smirked as he said it. I did pass because I was determined to prove him wrong. On results day I gleefully went to show him I had passed. His comment, 'It must have been an easy paper this year, if you passed'. Only later once he had gone did I find out 2 of his favourite boys did not pass.

mnahmnah · 31/01/2021 12:52

My form tutor, who was also my biology teacher, shouted and screamed at me after my bad mock result in yr11, that I would never amount to anything and would do nothing with my life. On results day I got BB on science. He walked past me and blanked me. Couldn’t even say well done. My only consolation was that on sports day his wife got blown off He was an awful teacher.

The only positive to come our of it, not that I want to give him credit, is that he made me realise I wanted to be a teacher. I figured I could do a far better job than him and I had an insight into how teachers should and shouldn’t treat their students.

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General education

mnahmnah · 31/01/2021 12:52

*wig!! Not wife!

BluebellsGreenbells · 31/01/2021 12:55

I was in year one and the sum was

0-5= and I wrote -5

She was jumping up and down screening and threatening to put her pen through my book!

Still puzzles me today!

Sparklingbrook · 31/01/2021 12:58

I am not good at drawing/painting or art and it was one of my least favourite lessons.
We were asked to draw a fish in one lesson at High School. I did a pretty decent attempt IMO.

Art teacher comes round to critic our pictures and says to me 'I've never seen a fish with an outline'. Great.

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 31/01/2021 13:06

My English/form teacher told me I was showing off because I always read in form time. I really wasn’t - I just loved reading. It was only years later that I wondered why an English teacher, of all subjects, couldn’t understand reading for pleasure.

I will say that another English teacher, a couple of years later, told my parents she thought I was making up how much I read (she’d asked how many books we read in a year and for some reason I answered truthfully). She said she then found out I’d read every book she ever mentioned and was only too happy to discuss them in great detail. She figured at this point that I really did read as much as I claimed. It was really nice to be believed in.

00100001 · 31/01/2021 13:18

DT/graphics teacher said my abstract cat cartoon was good ,and encouraged me to draw fee prints, and got them put in a shop. I sold a few :)

History teacher, when I was at a Year 10 parent's evening. He kind of looked at my attainment and predicted grades, asked what I wanted out if a history GCSE. I replied "an A". He smirked and said, " you won't get an A Binary, you're just not good enough, even though your effort is high, your attainment isn't good enough. You'll likely get a B." ...I got an A*.

My English teacher said "ignorance is not something to be proud of" to the class. Stuck with me.

00100001 · 31/01/2021 13:19

encouraged me to draw a few prints*

LNSL · 31/01/2021 13:20

Headteacher to me in lower sixth, after I received my uni offers and selected my 1/2 choices
'Well it really would be unbelievable if someone like you went there'
Got the grades needed and went to my first choice. Nasty bastard.

Akire · 31/01/2021 13:22

We had a biology teacher who spent least 5min of every lesson telling us how stupid we were and how we were all going fail the GSCE. Turns out we all did!

RedskyBynight · 31/01/2021 13:22

Home economics teacher - that I had no practical ability at all, and that being strong at academics was all very well but I still needed to learn some practical skills to be able to look after myself.

Funnily enough I have somehow managed to survive as an adult and also now quite enjoy cooking and embroidery and am reasonably good at both - something my home economics teacher might have found out if she'd given me a bit of time to learn the basics rather than writing me off because I couldn't go straight from "never used a sewing machine" to "construct a garment".

LadyWhistledownthe1st · 31/01/2021 13:23

My maths teacher told me in Y9 I would never pass my GCSE because “maths is clearly not your strong point”
Yet here I am, working in finance. I got an A in A level maths 😂

Pandoraslastchance · 31/01/2021 13:26

I remember my head of year tutting and saying I'd never get anywhere when I told her I was pregnant at 17. She wouldn't let me continue with my AS levels which were Biology, PE and English as it wouldn't be "safe". Stupid me left without fighting it.

Had baby and went to local college to do access to healthcare, went on to uni and got my nursing degree.

Her comment really hurt when I was 17,18 and 19 but fuck me I was determined to prove her wrong.

I'm making plans to do my specialist qualifications and masters in the next 5 to 10 years so suck on that you miserable trout!!!!

rogueantimatter · 31/01/2021 13:27

Headteacher told us 'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well'. His example of a job was sweeping up. Only as a parent and having health problems did I decide that adequate is good enough.

English teacher told me I was too gentle. That says more about him than me imo.

Science teacher said I would be wasted as a librarian and would make a good archivist. I didn't do either but she was great for my confidence.

History teacher, 'The thing about violence is, it works'. Thought provoking.

Nestofsalt · 31/01/2021 13:58

Not me, but exH. He used to be told by a teacher that he was a waster and would only be good for stacking shelves. ExH is now a very successful senior project manager in industry; he has always been able to laugh about it as he's pretty thick skinned, but can you imagine any teacher saying that nowadays. This teacher was notorious for it though, but funnily enough parents never seemed to complain?!

On a more positive note, I remember that I was wavering about dropping one of my four A Levels at the start of Year 13 but was worried about telling the teacher of the subject I wanted to drop. They were so kind about it, saying it was my decision and I had to do what was right for me, but at the same time reiterating that if there was anything they could do to support me with my workload then they would do it. Many years later, I am now a teacher and that approach has always stuck with me when I'm discussing similar scenarios with my own students.

Clawdy · 31/01/2021 14:01

Our history teacher, way back in the sixties, told us "Always remember, girls, women suffered and died so you could have the vote. Use your vote - always." I've never forgotten that.

Sharonthecat · 31/01/2021 14:07

I was bullied and school, and received the helpful advice 'try being a bit less you'. At best it was unhelpful and insensitive, at worst a bit damaging.
I bloody hated school

Sharonthecat · 31/01/2021 14:09

For balance however, I did have 2 teachers that I remember as very supportive and encouraging. So, not all bad

midsomermurderess · 31/01/2021 14:10

The art teacher at my school was very close to a girl who died. Leukemia, I think. Both of us were 14 or so. Yes, the teacher was upset, but not an excuse, I think, for her to have say to me 'why didn't you die' I had little dealings with the art teacher anyway so not sure what I'd done to warrant that.

starfish88 · 31/01/2021 14:15

I was probably about 9 when the head teacher described me as 'not suffering fools gladly'. I think it was meant to be an insult as it was about how I dealt with some of the teachers. It's always puzzled me as he basically accepted the teachers in question were fools and he had employed them.

coldwarenigma · 31/01/2021 14:19

Some of these remind me of why 'teacher assessment' although mooted as a fair way to grade students actually is not always 'fair'.

WhatMattersMost · 31/01/2021 14:23

When I was 13, I was made to stand up in Maths class and I was told I was a "worm". In fact, I was "Worm of the Week" several times. The impact this had on me was profound, and I consistently scored under 20% in my 13+ maths papers.

Then, I moved to a new school, with a new, lovely, patient Maths teacher, and I ended up getting 96% for my GCSEs. It just goes to show that the problem lay with a bully of a teacher, and not me.

TheWayOfTheWorld · 31/01/2021 14:24

I was slightly mucking around in IT (very slightly as I was a very well behaved student) and the ever so slightly loopy teacher launched into an astonishing tirade that I was a "filthy little beast" and would get "Ds and Es" in all my GCSEs.

Reader, I passed everything with As, went to Oxbridge and have worked in the City for last 2 decades. I felt like going back to her and saying "how do you like them apples"?!

Scrubadub · 31/01/2021 14:34

I was 5 when my teacher told my parents I was spiteful. That memory made me burn with shame for many years until I realised that I'm not spiteful, and I doubt I ever was.

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