Scariest teacher you had at school?

[HazelMaker]

My year 6 teacher made several boys cry

Sorry, zombie thread 🫢

Mr Kidwell belittled and humiliated me. So scared of him I used to cry every night before Chemistry. Another one I wont name, taught English and PE. Eventually put in prison for sexually abusing boys.

Lots of others in fact but those 2 stand out.

At Junior school we had a supply teacher who would come into school to teach if staff were off sick. I remember he had grey hair/beard and glasses, he was probably in his mid-50's back then. He shouted, threw board rubbers and chalk across the room, at any child who he deemed misbehaved. No one dared speak, ask questions and we kept our heads down!!

I started school in 76 and the head teachers of the Infant and junior schools used corporal punishment. So it would have to be them. I was never subjected to it and the rest of the staff never used it. It was normal at the time as it was used in other primary schools in the area too. Also some secondary schools but not mine.

Maths teacher: sometimes lovely but sometimes shouted a lot. I found out years later that he had been injured in the war and had had a metal plate inserted in his head. His temper was apparently worse in hot weather when the plate heated up

I had a teacher with a similar story at primary school. Our parents used to just shake their heads and say "oh, the war" when we said anything about him.

Thinking back I reckon a few of our teachers had ptsd type behaviour from their war service. There was one that used to lose it if anyone dropped anything on the floor or heard any sort of loud bang. With hindsight I feel very sad for him but as a young child he was terrifying.

Another who had a very short fuse got accidentally hit in the back of the head with a tennis ball some kids were throwing around behind his back. He grabbed the big wooden blackboard pointer stick and started waving it around as if he was defending himseld, knocking things over and yelling. He hit one of the kids on the face with the pointer (by accident, he was in a blind panic, it was awful to see) and he didn't come back to teaching after that. I was quite young when that happened but I remember it so clearly. Poor man.

And poor us at the time, we were just little kids.

I was schooled on the 70’s & 80’s.
coming from a household of aggression, violence and being on high alert, all teachers were scary to me because they were adults and adults were the source of my terror.
I recall one nice gentle teacher in high school. That’s it though.

I am another one that had a terrifying Latin teacher. I am guessing there aren't many Latin teachers left these days, perhaps we were all too terrified to study it further.

PE teacher who did religious classes, unpaid, out of the goodness of her heart

In senior school, Mrs M, taught history. She had a really loud voice and could silence you with a look.

She was really strict but was a very good teacher, no one ever disrupted the class, the boys were too scared of her thankfully which made it much better for those of us (mainly the girls) who were hoping to actually learn something.

Aw. My Latin teachers were the NICEST. I loved them and still think fondly of them.

We had a Russian chemistry teacher who was pretty scary. And a PE teacher who in cross country used to run at the back of the pack to ‘prevent stragglers’ swinging a hockey stick around her head so you’d get walloped if you were too slow… that was pretty scary.

overall though I feel like if I think back to the moments teachers really scared me, they were generally lovely teachers but we’re only terrifying if you crossed them. Our house mistress is one of the teachers who I think most fondly of in general but if I remember certain moments my blood runs cold even now.

Oh… I just realised that I hadn’t considered teachers at primary school at all. I think partly because I block them out.

my yr 5 teacher in primary was vile. She was irrationally strict by which I mean that there was no logic to when she would be angry. Sometimes she’s scream and hiss and yell about a tiny transgression, other times a more serious thing would be let slide.

she hated me and made my life hell. I was miserable, but didn’t complain to my parents because my mum was a teacher herself and I had ‘learned’ by this age that she would always side with the teacher if I moaned. Except it turned out in this instance she wouldn’t have. There was an SEN assistant assigned to a boy in my class and she knew my mum loosely. She was so concerned by the continuous and constant bullying of me by the teacher that she approaches my mum directly about it. Knowing that the teaching assignments for the following year meant I would have to suffer the same teacher again for year 6 she let this slip to my mum and they sat me for the 11+ and entry exams a year early so that I could escape her.

she was, in my eyes, the scariest woman on the planet.

I had a proper bitch of a teacher for a level English. I should have been the type of pupil they all loved- hard working but quite shy and has overcome a degree of adversity to be doing as well as I was but she really look against me.

I still remember giving her a slip to ask about my suitability for Oxbridge and she refused to fill it out and told me in front of the whole class why she thought I wasn’t good enough while signing the slips for the other kids. It was literally a section with predicted grade and a one line comment box. I cried my eyes out at the humiliation and my parents complained. I remember my head of 6th who also taught me for one of my other subjects being absolutely furious.

As an adult, I can see she was a massive unhinged bully but her actions took me back in confidence for years.

My reception teacher was evil and shouty and scared everyone. She would slap. I remember the feeling of not quite understanding the rules.

PE teacher who would pull towels off us to check we were wet and hadn’t just pretended to shower. It’s weird because we didn’t feel like we had a choice. Looking back, some of us should have raised this and maybe something would have been done.

I also had a bit of a warped teacher in primary school- she would casually ask kids in the class in front of everyone things like ‘when was the last time you had a bath as I think it’s time you need another one’. These types of comments could be thrown out anytime. She could be really nice most of the time, but some of her pleasant comments had a sting for others e.g. Fred, you have lots of friends, which is why you’re never alone in the playground.

The teacher we had the following year was wonderful - inspiring, kind, fair, built people back up - an absolute gem. Thank you Mrs Adler!