If you could sit in a room with a teacher of your choice from your childhood and tell them anything, what would you say?

[BruhWhy]

I often think about running into my P.E teacher and letting her know that what she didn't know about me was that I was being neglected by my parents, and was ashamed about the way I looked and smelled... also ashamed and worried about the fact I didn't have period products, and that's why I made excuses and forged notes to get out of P.E - I wasn't lazy and stupid, she didn't need to shout at me in front of everyone and say these things, all she needed to do was ask and I'd have told her...

I'd also love to tell my lovely English teacher that him telling me that my essay was the best he'd read that year was the first compliment I'd ever gotten from a teacher, and I still think about the way that made me feel to this day

Hello Miss X, why did you think humiliating and bullying the ‘new girl’, encouraging the entire class to laugh at the way you put her down was ok?
Bullying 10 year olds, especially in their first week at their 6th primary school is weird behaviour from a teacher

To my head of year..... how do you sleep at night?
I told you boys in my year sexually assaulted me and you made out it was my fault... that I could've done something to prevent it. Why? Because you couldn't be bothered to deal with it?
You shouldn't be a teacher!

I would love to ask Miss L what on earth was going on. Which of the tales she told us (she was the product of a gang rape and adopted, she had been recruited / worked for MI5 among others) were true, if any. Why she told this to a class of 13 year olds she'd never met before, as well as later on in the year to others?

And what happened in her final (mid-year) term with us. She was obviously ostracised from the teachers' lunch tables for a few weeks before she suddenly left.

Have been wondering about this for nearly 25 years.

That it's not ok to shout at and bully young girls, belittle them in front of everyone else, mock them and reduce them to tears or hit them. Nor is it ok to have "favourites" and encourage them to join the bullying hatred of others. And actually teaching something in class instead of actively sneering at those of us who did want to learn. Call yourself a teacher? I wouldn't. You were a fucking disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Did you REALLY think I was wearing a different coloured PE skirt from the (very expensive) regulation skirt just for shits and giggles? Did you REALLY have no idea that Mum couldn't afford the very expensive regulation skirt?

Oh... and to all my teachers - did it not occur to you that a teenager losing 2 stone very fast might be a cause for concern? That there might've been something going on at home? Granted, this was 45 years ago and safeguarding hadn't been invented. But still...

@Silvercatowner

Did you REALLY think I was wearing a different coloured PE skirt from the (very expensive) regulation skirt just for shits and giggles? Did you REALLY have no idea that Mum couldn't afford the very expensive regulation skirt?

Omg yes. I was made to stand up in front of the class on my FIRST DAY at secondary school and got shouted at because I was wearing a plain white T shirt instead of the regulation aertex, which for some reason we hadn't managed to get. As if I was in charge of that decision aged 11! It was so humiliating!

Miss Francis - you single handedly ensured that I never had confidence in my abilities through your sneering attitude. I feel cold hatred towards you 42 years later.

I would tell my history teacher that although everyone hated him for being so strict, I thought he was the best teacher I ever had. He actually taught and I learned.

I would also tell my dance teacher that she was an utter bitch for fawning over the 'cool girls', telling my mum on parent's evening that I was rubbish and didn't have what it took and yet I was the only student to get the top grade in the exam. That was karma biting her on her arse!

Oh and I'd also tell my business studies teacher that the reason no one but me (because I was that 'good' girl who never broke rules) turned up to his class because he was a sexual predator who perved over girls and touched us very inappropriately.

All the teachers at my primary school
Fuck me you where all evil twats-what did I ever do to you all?
I was a little girl who didn’t deserve your pure hate and you made my life hell
I know I wasn’t the most sporty,the prettiest,the most popular or dainty but there was no need for the sheer spite and attitude that I’d amount to nothing in life (spoiler-I did)

Mrs fisher-you two faced bitch
I know you lost your husband and daughter within 6 months of each other
I can’t begin to know what that felt like or what you went though
But to take it out on a child like that was unforgivable
And to make it worse-when my own children started,you really took it out on them that I was their mother
You where nice one minute-evil the next and that’s not the way you teach
And you had the bloody cheek to be besties with my mother just so you could torture me out of school too!
Unforgivable

Mr naylor-you where the teacher who gave me my love of English
You really believed in your subject and your love for it shone though
You where an amazing teacher-always firm but fair
School lost the best when you moved away to teach at private

Mrs S thank you for unlocking maths for me. Sorry you left the year before the exams so the head took over who sometimes didn't even turn up for lessons. So thank you again for coming round to my house for a couple of private lessons before I retook in 6th form. My most satisfying exam pass.

But mostly thank you for teaching me about fatalism - in a positive way. It's worked for me ever since

To my PE teacher: You were right. I really couldn't be arsed. I like rambling and cycling now. Team sports are not my bag.

To Mr Hodges, how did you get away with spending the entire lesson chain smoking outside the classroom? Thanks to you I got an E in maths and it is still not something I am confident in.

I was lucky enough to meet my favourite teacher again, forty years after I left school. She visited the island where I now live and I was able to tell her how absolutely bloody fabulous she was. My mum had Bipolar disorder and a Borderline Personality disorder, my dad was self medicating with alcohol and I can remember being just petrified a lot of the time. But she was, and is, just wonderful.

To all the bad teachers in my school - thank-you for inspiring me to become a good teacher!

teamonkey how brilliant. I wrote to one of my university lecturers a few decades afterwards. Didn’t want her to have retired/moved/died without me expressing gratitude.

Art teacher - making fun of kids' work in front of the class isn't funny or good teaching. Art is subjective. You should be teaching us that. Showing work of different artists instead of plonking down an old lamp, telling us to draw it & bugger off for the rest of the lesson.

Mr Milton - you were a vicious bully with the worst case of Little Man Syndrome I've ever seen. Good job I didn't tell my dad you kidney punched me after I got pushed out of the line coming out of assembly.

RE Teacher one - it's perfectly possible & normal not to be Christian or believe in God. This isn't a religious school. Don't mark me down because I ask questions. Take a leaf from RE Teacher 2's book and encourage conversation & debate.

PE teacher - sorry I hated your lessons but thank you for sending me to the library as 'punishment' instead of laps of the field etc. I think you know that's what I really loved. You were actually very kind.

The rest - you were all bloody amazing, working hard in a rough school where most of the kids didn't want to learn. I'm still in touch with a lot of my year and we all stay the same. Most of us did well because of you.

Mr Stirzaker, Mr Hamer, Mrs Gresty - I will always have a special place in my heart for you.

Primary teachers: a very big no thank you for making me sit with the badly behaved kids to “be an example” to them. It made every day fucking miserable to the point where I didn’t want to go to school.

PE teachers: I wasn’t lazy, I have hypermobility and what we did in class actually hurt me. Don’t you learn that stuff in your training?

My fabulous art and language teachers: thank you for noting and appreciating my enthusiasm. Your encouragement took me far in life.

Miss Lees (long since married & name changed so not doxxing anyone here):

Spending a good hour every Friday afternoon screaming at your Y6 class that they are all awful and ruining your life is not good teaching. Shouting at them, making nasty sarcastic personal remarks about them all day every day isn't good teaching. Taking pupils' many hours of work, yelling that it is "messy", ripping it up and throwing it in the bin is not good teaching. Repeatedly refusing to allow pupils to go to the loo meaning several wet themselves in class over the course of the year is not good teaching. I can't even count the number of similar things you did while you taught us, I've probably forgotten most of them because for some reason you didn't single me out like you did others in my class. But I've never forgotten what a horrendous bully you are.

Neither has my friend, who was inspired by you to become a teacher. She wanted no other child to feel like you made her feel that year, and it spurred her on to prove you wrong about her abilities. Now SHE is a fantastic teacher - she's won awards, taught all over the world and absolutely loves her job. At conferences she tells the tale of how your bullying inspired her to make sure her students never felt like she did in Y6. Including one memorable conference where she later realised you had been in the audience! Yes, that was you she was talking about. Your cruelty affected several of my friends for many years. I've no idea why you decided to teach, it certainly wasn't because you liked children or wanted to bring out their potential.

Miss G; thank you for taking time to encourage me. (And thank you for lending me the Tori Amos and PJ Harvey CDs, they started a lifelong love of music and those artists in particular!)

Mrs D; thank you for your dry wit and gruff kindness, and for teaching me not just how to write an essay, but how to construct a balanced argument for almost any subject.

My DM never forgot the teacher who told her she'd end up an unemployed teenage parent with multiple kids by multiple fathers (DM wasn't academic)

DM married a teacher and had 2 kids in her 30s

She met that teacher again via DF and took great pride in telling him who her DH was and that she had her own business now

He apologised

That it really was not OK to tell a couple of 8 year olds at carpet circle time in front of the whole class that our parents would be going to hell because they had divorced. 45 years on and I’ve still not forgiven you.

Mr Stephenson - thank you for being an amazing inspiring maths teacher. I loved maths, especially mechanics. Having a teacher who loved it too made a huge difference. As did your kindness and understanding. Lovely man.

Mr Ireland - nasty piece of work. Any teacher who derives obvious pleasure from making a shy reserved pupil blush in front of the class, and even stops them in the corridor to do the same is in the wrong career. You are one of the main reasons I had a total breakdown at school. I don't hate lightly but I genuinely hate you. I hope you grew up a bit during your many decades as a teacher.

To the nun who told my parents that because I explained the facts of life to a fellow nursery school child (totally wrongly ill bet but I was a younger sibling so had some idea I think) I should leave the nursery - NO WORDS.
I was expelled from nursery. Thank goodness.