Worst Teachers/Professors You've Had?
Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:16 pm
This is more for me to vent, but feel free to share your experiences with good/bad teachers, and general discussion about them. Also advice for dealing with these types would help.
For much of my high school life, about 90% of my teachers are (honestly, some of the best people I've met), at the very least pretty good, most of the rest are about a little above average, one very bad, one absolute shit.
I'll tell you about the absolute shit one, as that one's more interesting; My Earth Science teacher.
This guy didn't teach. I don't mean that in the 'He tried and utterly failed at teaching' way, NO, I mean that in the 'This guy didn't teach' way. Lemme elaborate.
Freshman year. I had to take a year of Earth Science as I already took Biology in Middle School, so I was like 'Alright whatever.' I was interested in various sciences since I was a kid, and Earth Science was my favorite after Astronomy, so a part of me was looking forward to it. First day (which was more of an orientation day) I walked into the classroom; The place was filled with Earth science-related things; Rocks, sediments, topographic maps, diagrams, posters, etc. I was like 'Damn, this shit goin' be good!" I also noticed several pictures of the teacher, smiling with his previous classes and his family, and I thought "Wow this guy's outgoing too! This class is gonna kick ass!" (For the teacher, just imagine a lighter-skinned, bald, more round-headed version of Richard Pryor, with glasses). Anyway, since it was just orientation day (not even like a syllabus day), the teacher came in, we'll call him Mr. Green (if you knew his actual name you'd know why
wait does that give away too much who cares) and he seemed to be a laid-back guy: Made jokes, talked informally, and you can just tell he loved Earth Science. I was like "Alright, cool!"
The details are very foggy, but I still remember the essentials of the first few days of class. We walk in, sit at our desks (which were at an incline, which was awesome), Mr. Green would open up the notes, (which is basically just lifted from the textbook, mainly the definitions and key points) talk for about five minutes about it, then eventually he would ramble into some asinine story about his girlfriend, his daughter, or his friends, or he talks about how he knows a lot of people who have good money, and he usually told about two per class (and no doubt he embellishes the details; the stories weren't outlandish, but given how many stories he tells us, I think he was full of shit half of the time), each took up about 12 minutes or so. I remember thinking 'Okay that's cool, but we have to get started here dude. We have regents at the end of the year.' I thought that he was just still easing into school, so I didn't think much of it.
Along came October. Same thing day in, day out. I was getting a bit worried, so I went up to him and asked him and he said 'Don't worry, we're getting to the stuff!" We were still on Chapter One, and I think there were about 25 or so chapters? A sense of unease was coming onto me. He gave like one homework every few weeks, and it was usually just a scourge through the textbook for a grade out of 20. The tests were asinine, and I did crappy for the first marking period (the second marking period I started studying on my own, and quickly started passing with 90s), as you'll see.
November came, same thing. Then December. Around Christmas Break, I was like 'OK shit has to change. We're only on Chapter 5. Something has to happen now.' I think he had the same epiphany, since when we got back, he started to attempt to teach. He told us not to take notes, since his notes were good enough, and all of us were stupid enough to believe him (though I know most were temped to take notes). He just kind of stated something from the notes with a tiny bit of elaboration, then just moved on, without allowing questions or time to absorb what the fuck is going on. Again, I just skimmed the textbook (not his useless notes) every night, and that's what kept me afloat in that class. Then we did about 4 chapters by February, so I think he calmed down since he thought he was up to date, which he believed gave him permission to tell us more stories and other crap I did not give a shit about.
Of course, May came, one month until the regents. 10 Chapters left. like 2 tests every week. Barely went over anything. Just kinda stated things then moved on, trying to get things done as fast as possible.
Regents came, I did pretty well on them, no thanks to Mr. Green. I loved basically every other class that year, but I grew to despise that class. That class for me was about a B overall, which kept my GPA from going much higher than a 91. I was just thankful that hell was over.
I have more to add since I have him again now, along with not including some other juicy details, but that's another story for another time. I think I'll add my closing thoughts.
If you've ever had a job, Mr. Green is that guy who just doesn't do his job. If I were a teacher at this school (a possibility I do humor), if I worked hard as hell everyday planning and researching lessons, trying to teach many concepts to tons of different types of kids, grading homework, tests, projects, and overall trying my hardest, just to have this asshole slack off like he always does? I'd be pissed and probably complain to the overheads. He obviously thinks highly of himself (he even said he's a good teacher
), and is probably narcissistic. I don't think he ever came prepared, and overall, while definitely loves earth science, is not fit for teaching.
Another amusing anecdote: Once, he had to step out of the class real quick, so one of the Biology teachers had to watch over us for about 15 minutes. He went into a pretty interesting lesson about how if water is perfectly clear, it's dangerous to drink because it's dead. When the class was dismissed, we all said how we learned more in that 15 minutes with the biology teacher than we have in an entire year with Mr. Green.
What really pisses me off is that my Physics teacher I had last year now also teaches Earth Science, and he would have been AWESOME to have (physics was fun with him). C'est la vie.
So that's what I'm dealing with here any thoughts?
For much of my high school life, about 90% of my teachers are (honestly, some of the best people I've met), at the very least pretty good, most of the rest are about a little above average, one very bad, one absolute shit.
I'll tell you about the absolute shit one, as that one's more interesting; My Earth Science teacher.
This guy didn't teach. I don't mean that in the 'He tried and utterly failed at teaching' way, NO, I mean that in the 'This guy didn't teach' way. Lemme elaborate.
Freshman year. I had to take a year of Earth Science as I already took Biology in Middle School, so I was like 'Alright whatever.' I was interested in various sciences since I was a kid, and Earth Science was my favorite after Astronomy, so a part of me was looking forward to it. First day (which was more of an orientation day) I walked into the classroom; The place was filled with Earth science-related things; Rocks, sediments, topographic maps, diagrams, posters, etc. I was like 'Damn, this shit goin' be good!" I also noticed several pictures of the teacher, smiling with his previous classes and his family, and I thought "Wow this guy's outgoing too! This class is gonna kick ass!" (For the teacher, just imagine a lighter-skinned, bald, more round-headed version of Richard Pryor, with glasses). Anyway, since it was just orientation day (not even like a syllabus day), the teacher came in, we'll call him Mr. Green (if you knew his actual name you'd know why
wait does that give away too much who cares) and he seemed to be a laid-back guy: Made jokes, talked informally, and you can just tell he loved Earth Science. I was like "Alright, cool!"The details are very foggy, but I still remember the essentials of the first few days of class. We walk in, sit at our desks (which were at an incline, which was awesome), Mr. Green would open up the notes, (which is basically just lifted from the textbook, mainly the definitions and key points) talk for about five minutes about it, then eventually he would ramble into some asinine story about his girlfriend, his daughter, or his friends, or he talks about how he knows a lot of people who have good money, and he usually told about two per class (and no doubt he embellishes the details; the stories weren't outlandish, but given how many stories he tells us, I think he was full of shit half of the time), each took up about 12 minutes or so. I remember thinking 'Okay that's cool, but we have to get started here dude. We have regents at the end of the year.' I thought that he was just still easing into school, so I didn't think much of it.
Along came October. Same thing day in, day out. I was getting a bit worried, so I went up to him and asked him and he said 'Don't worry, we're getting to the stuff!" We were still on Chapter One, and I think there were about 25 or so chapters? A sense of unease was coming onto me. He gave like one homework every few weeks, and it was usually just a scourge through the textbook for a grade out of 20. The tests were asinine, and I did crappy for the first marking period (the second marking period I started studying on my own, and quickly started passing with 90s), as you'll see.
November came, same thing. Then December. Around Christmas Break, I was like 'OK shit has to change. We're only on Chapter 5. Something has to happen now.' I think he had the same epiphany, since when we got back, he started to attempt to teach. He told us not to take notes, since his notes were good enough, and all of us were stupid enough to believe him (though I know most were temped to take notes). He just kind of stated something from the notes with a tiny bit of elaboration, then just moved on, without allowing questions or time to absorb what the fuck is going on. Again, I just skimmed the textbook (not his useless notes) every night, and that's what kept me afloat in that class. Then we did about 4 chapters by February, so I think he calmed down since he thought he was up to date, which he believed gave him permission to tell us more stories and other crap I did not give a shit about.
Of course, May came, one month until the regents. 10 Chapters left. like 2 tests every week. Barely went over anything. Just kinda stated things then moved on, trying to get things done as fast as possible.
Regents came, I did pretty well on them, no thanks to Mr. Green. I loved basically every other class that year, but I grew to despise that class. That class for me was about a B overall, which kept my GPA from going much higher than a 91. I was just thankful that hell was over.
I have more to add since I have him again now, along with not including some other juicy details, but that's another story for another time. I think I'll add my closing thoughts.
If you've ever had a job, Mr. Green is that guy who just doesn't do his job. If I were a teacher at this school (a possibility I do humor), if I worked hard as hell everyday planning and researching lessons, trying to teach many concepts to tons of different types of kids, grading homework, tests, projects, and overall trying my hardest, just to have this asshole slack off like he always does? I'd be pissed and probably complain to the overheads. He obviously thinks highly of himself (he even said he's a good teacher
), and is probably narcissistic. I don't think he ever came prepared, and overall, while definitely loves earth science, is not fit for teaching.Another amusing anecdote: Once, he had to step out of the class real quick, so one of the Biology teachers had to watch over us for about 15 minutes. He went into a pretty interesting lesson about how if water is perfectly clear, it's dangerous to drink because it's dead. When the class was dismissed, we all said how we learned more in that 15 minutes with the biology teacher than we have in an entire year with Mr. Green.
What really pisses me off is that my Physics teacher I had last year now also teaches Earth Science, and he would have been AWESOME to have (physics was fun with him). C'est la vie.
So that's what I'm dealing with here any thoughts?
), so I have had my share of crappy teachers. 
I think it was in the region I was least comfortable with... I like to think it was just happenstance.