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

@BillyJoe111

The awful cow who blighted my life between the ages of 6 and 11. Is ask her why she was such a racist bitch and why she took that out on me and humiliated me at every turn.

And one of my secondary teachers. I’d ask him why he and the others ignored me and cast me off as a thick trouble maker when they knew how awful my home life was, why they didn’t believe I was being horrendously bullied, why they ignored a clearly depressed and self harming teenager and why none of them cared.

And the nun who was the head teacher who told me I’d never achieve anything in my life. I mean, she was right. But I would like to know why you would say that to a teenager who was clearing in distress and struggling.

Sorry to read of your horrible experience at school. There is clearly something very wrong with adults who behave this way to powerless children. I hope you have found some peace in your life. The racism is rife in education, still unfortunately.

Primary 5 teacher,
I would want to tell him what an absolute bastard he was. When I went and told him I was being badly bullied by the other girls at my table he didn’t believe me, I would like to tell him that just because one of the girls dads was a doctor it still possible for her to be a nasty bitch.
When things came to a head and my mum came in to school to sort it out you made me sit in the little library just off the classroom by myself for the rest of the year I could hear you teaching the class and nobody ever came to check on me I was ostracised and it had a massive effect on me, my life.
You are a total knob MR E.

Id like to tell my English teacher in year 9 just how much it meant to me when she read out my short story in front of the class because she thought it was so good.

Also not really a child but for my a levels my English teacher was amazing. He spoke to us and discussed the texts with us like adults, and like our opinion was important. I don't think id ever experienced that before.

@MrsSteveMcDonald
@BillyJoe111

@DramaAlpaca

That there's nothing wrong with my ability in maths. It was your awful teaching that was to blame.

Same here. In fact at age 60 I'm half way through a Maths GCSE course to prove it.

Good for you @squashyhat! I'm almost your age, maybe I should do the same. I was conditioned to think I was bad at maths until I started work, used maths all the time, and realised that actually I could do it perfectly well.

Mrs Davey, you were a nasty piece of work. You really didn't like little me and you quashed my enthusiasm for learning very early on with your snappiness and moods. I was such a good little girl who just wanted to learn and say the right things - yes, I may have blurted out lots of answers - but you stamped on my confidence there and then and ground it down over time to the extent where I still don't like to speak up in public.

It even pained you to give me gold stars and a "smelly pencil" (fruit scented pop-a-point pencil) for my top notch spelling, as was customary.

And yes, I was from a one parent family, as was judged harshly in the early 80s, but my Dad was murdered. Not an ounce of understanding, pastoral care or anything that young children suffering such a loss need. No, just outright disdain towards a vulnerable child over a period of 3 years. Why did you decide to throw my lunch in the bin at one point? Is it any wonder my Mum verbally tore strips off you, although why I didn't get moved classes is a mystery.

The other teachers in that primary school weren't much better, but your utter contempt towards me from P1-P3 has affected me in ways you will never know or care about. I hope you're proud of yourself, you spiteful cow.

That it's not my fault she'd never heard of the word 'concomitant' and maybe she could have looked it up before marking me down for making up a word.

And also that I deliberately used it in my first published book as a silent 'fuck you' to that particular strain of teachers from the 1980s who preferred to squash dreams rather than inspire.

Bad - Mrs S for being such a dragon and constantly belittling me - just took against me and I'd like to ask her why?

Good - Miss M, Mrs W - for encouraging my "weirdness" and believing in me. Especially Mrs W for being a respite from Mrs S!!!

Mrs S - you know when you made me stand up in maths class to single me out for not doing my homework?

Did you forget that two days previously you had told me not to worry about it as my mother had died the week before and I was in pieces with a dad who was having a mental breakdown?

12 year old me was too humiliated to say anything.

41 year old me would punch you and the smirking face you made as you asked the class, which contained some of the people who bullied me and who thought they were hilarious ordering a vile pizza to my house the day of my mums funeral, what my punishment should be. You nasty bitch.

God some of these are just horrendous. We have teachers in the family - and mum was never a great lover of the profession (she was knocked out by a teacher as a child by banning her head against the blackboard when she misspelled a word).

*banging here head. This was a nun too!

Mr. W you kept telling us that we'd never pass maths and that you'd literally drawn the short straw teaching us lot and what was the point anyway but actually you were a crap teacher and I used to go home and cry because I didn't understand anything and you didn't care anyway but I passed maths despite you not because of you.

Mr. L I'm really sorry we all misbehaved in your lessons and taunted you until you cried but you were an easy target and we were awful to you and I still feel bad about it 30 years on. I'm so sorry and I wish we'd given you more respect and actually when you did manage to teach rather than crowd control I learnt so much.

Mr. S thank you so much for realising that the English work was too easy and giving me A level work alongside GCSE stuff because you knew I was bored - and thank you for always making extra time to answer my endless questions and introducing me to books I'd never otherwise have read

My head is not a funny shape to fit all my brains in but thanks, I guess.

Mr Langley-Fogg

You saw through my dads narcissism and realised I had an awful home life. I suspect looking back at the area I grew up in, I was one of many neglected kids.

I was told daily by my parents I was useless, rubbish, my brother was better, but despite this you were at school constantly wanting to know my marks, pushing for more work, perfection was the only thing accepted outwardly. I took a beating for getting one spelling wrong in my whole primary school life.

You saw through that Mr L-F, you praised, you lied on my school report when I'd acted out in school (because in your words, you knew what my dad would do to me for a bad report).
You once sat me down after I was upset again at not reaching the impossible heights that my dad had deemed I had to achieve and you told me it was ok to do my best, not anyone else best, just mine. And if I always did that, then the result didn't matter, because I would always know I had given it my all.

I had never had anyone tell me what I did was enough, no one had cared enough.

I still think of that 30 years on. You inspired me to be far better that what my upbringing should have allowed.

I tried to contact you some years back, but you had passed some years before, I got in touch with your son and told him how you'd inspired me, he said it was fantastic to hear and that he was pleased his dad was still remembered by others.

RIP Sir. You changed my life.

To my class teacher at 11 years old... Why did you single me out before the class play to ask me if I'd be happier wearing a costume that covered me up more than the rest of the class?? I didn't look any different to the others, only a bit paler perhaps.

To my philosophy teacher for 'A' level. You predicted me an 'E', but I ended up with an 'A'. No thanks to your horrendous teaching.

To my English lit teacher at sixth form. You are one of the most amazing people I have ever met.

My year 3 teacher was wonderful. She was so calm, kind and patient, and I lived in a very turbulent household. My DH and I randomly moved next door to her, and I was able to tell her how she made me feel. My children and I go up to her farm on a Friday morning to feed the sheep and have tea and cake. She is just as wonderful now as she was when I was 7 years old.

To my P4 teacher Mr E, thank-you for reading stories every day, you enabled me to access stories that my dyslexic self was never going to access. I still read with my son because of you.

Mr Marshall , 50 years later and I still remember how horrid you were to me . You were a nasty bully.

I also remember our P2 teacher regularly giving ‘the ruler’ to a lad because his class work was usually not good. I can still remember the one day he got a gold star - he just stood next to her grinning like a Cheshire Cat and showing it off.

She was missing something because last time I heard from him, he’d got into Cambridge.

That English essay I worked really hard on?
You said it was worthy of a B+ but marked me down to a C because you asked me who helped me with it as you didn’t believe it was all my own work.
You destroyed my confidence. It was first year in high school. It was all my own work. DM was a single parent working full time who left school at 14, she wasn’t able to help me and I didn’t have anyone else.

All the teachers who would whisper 'but she's adopted' / 'she's very odd but she's adopted' / 'you wouldn't think a clever kid like that was adopted' etc when they thought I couldn't hear ... I could. You always seemed so surprised that someone like me could get a clean sweep of top grades. I was academic but didn't have many friends, felt very confused about pretty much everything and so, so sad all the time. I just wanted to be normal.

Fuck me that was cathartic!

@polar81

Fuck me that was cathartic!

I found that too!

I’m so sad at all the horrific experiences people have had with teachers. As with any occupation that puts them in charge of “weaker” people, it seems to attract a lot of vile, nasty, abusive people.

To my games mistress. What did you think lining up all the girls and measuring their vital statistics to see how close they were to the 'perfect 36-24-36' would do to our self-esteem, self-image and future relationship with food?