Before you start ranting and raving at me, I want to say that I admire a lot of teachers and the work they are doing. I REALLY don't think I would have the stamina to do what they do over and over again for year after year. That being said, I will get on with this post.
Most of us, on at least one occasion, have been asked--whether on a college application, through a meme, etc--to name one teacher who was influential in our lives or who we admired most. Whenever I have confronted that question, I have never been able to come up with a good answer. There were very few--if any--teachers that I ever REALLY admired or who I thought did a good job.
Throughout my school years, I had quite an array of teachers. During elementary school, the majority of my teachers--all female--retired at the end of the year they had me as a student. I always wondered if they retired BECAUSE of me--and not because each and every one of them had Methuselah as a student! (Actually, the sixth grade teacher had taught The Mother when SHE was in grade school--and she continued to teach after I went up to the high school!)
Then there was the English teacher I had the beginning of high school. It was her first year of teaching, so she was young, hip, and encouraged each of her students to be her friend. She gossiped to us about the other teachers and listened to all of our secrets--and ignored our 'confessions' of wrong-doings. This continued till close to the end of the school year when, suddenly, she ratted us out to the principal and got us into trouble. Now, we weren't in trouble over drugs or booze or anything major--it just was minor infractions, but still. I guess she needed SOMETHING to ensure her employment for the following year.
Anyway, our school district had some terrible teachers, but here are some stories that most people will find hard to believe. They ARE true--trust me.
In our high school, we had one math teacher for the higher math classes. Those who took four years of math got to see him every damn school day for all of those years. I was one of those who got to be in his class every single year. While I didn't always agree with his teaching methods, we got along fine and I did manage to learn quite a lot from him.
As is the case with all student/teacher relationships, the students, at least, get together and bitch about the teachers. There always is something to complain about with one teacher or another and when you are in the exact same classes with virtually the same people year after year, you have the tendency to hang out with each other and get to know each other well. At one point during senior year, I realized one of the girls wasn't going along with the bitching about the math teacher with the rest of us. I dismissed it as nothing and forgot about it--until about a year after we graduated.
'Math girl' babysat for the math teacher and his wife for years while we were in school. This wasn't that unheard of--especially because her family was a little more of the 'better' class of people in our town. Then, about a year after we graduated they got married. Obviously, they were getting 'together' while we were seniors--hence, her refusal to chime-in with the teacher bashing we did. To this day, the whole thing creeps me out. And they still are married and had a kid together. He continued working at the school until his retirement. It was very strange to go to our class reunion and have him there as the husband of one of our classmates. Ick!
While the story of 'math teacher' is creepy, it doesn't come close to the story of 'basketball coach' and 'English teacher.' These two were youngish--probably around 30 or so--and were close friends. They loved to go to the neighboring town and 'drink' their lunch on many occasions. How did we find this out? Because of the great 'drinking age of 18' experiment. Several of the kids in my senior class turned 18 before we graduated--my hubby among them--and they would go to the same watering hole for a beer whenever they decided to leave school. Sometimes they left just to leave, other times they would be going somewhere else for a class, but if time permitted, they would stop for a beer. And this was when it was discovered that these two teachers spent many of their lunch hours in a bar.
'Basketball coach' was the poorest excuse for a teacher I have ever seen. He taught a required class that I had in 7th or 8th grade and, even then, I thought he stunk. Thankfully, I never had to sit in his class ever again, but I have heard enough from others about his classes. The majority of the time he showed movies or (anyone remember these?) film strips. He gave enormous amounts of multiple-choice quizzes and basically left the class to itself whenever possible. One story I CAN relate, because I saw it for myself. As a senior, I was in charge of the finances for the yearbook. During our yearbook ordering period, I was required to count the money and bring it to the superintendent's office to be placed in the safe where it would, eventually, be put in the bank. This worked out fine for me, as I didn't have a class right after lunch, so time wasn't a problem. So, this one day, I walked into the office and saw 'basketball coach' chasing the superintendent's secretary around her desk--LITERALLY!!! She was giggling like a school girl and he was red-faced and out of breath! Now, WHO do you think was more embarrassed, them or me? And the beauty part of this: he had a class that he was supposed to be teaching in the room across the hall. But, they were watching a film strip, so it was all okay. Un-freaking-believable!
'English teacher' was married and had kids. ('Basketball coach' was, too, but divorced sometime while I was in school.) It was common knowledge that he had an affair going on with a former student of his--one which began while she was still his student. She was a few years older than me and was in college. Word was, she would send any correspondence for him to the school so that his wife wouldn't find about it. This went on for years. The student graduated and went to work at the same school as a teacher. They eventually married each other and are still together today. They each attained the position of principal before their retirements. They were highly respected. A GREAT place I graduated from, huh?
While most of the teachers I had weren't as bad as the ones I have mentioned, most were quite unmemorable. However, I DO have to tell about two teachers I actually liked.
I adored my physics teacher. He was a kind, gentle man and NEVER should have been a high school teacher--he was too brilliant! The man was not able to 'dumb down' enough to explain things to us so that we could understand what he was talking about. I truly don't believe I learned much of anything in his class--just wasn't able. He was very tall and lanky--he reminded me of Lurch from The Adam's Family TV show--only he was better looking. He was a bright spot during my high school years. He DID leave the school the year after I was in his class--another teacher I ruined forever!
The other teacher that I can't complain about was my biology/chemistry teacher. I admired him and for one reason: he was there to teach and that is what he did. He didn't engage in the foolishness or politics that the other teachers were part of. He was a teacher and we were his students and that is how it was. No one ever knew anything about his private life--only that he wasn't married. The only time he set foot in the teacher's lounge was to get his mail from his box--you NEVER had to knock on the lounge door to find him because he was always in the lab if he wasn't teaching a class. He did his job and he did it well.
So, there is my tale of the teachers. I often wonder how bad things are there NOW if they were that bad back then! Interesting.
Teachers--Bah, Humbug!
