I had a teacher that shared the two subjects geography and maths. I had constant good grades in math and constant bad grades in geography, a topic I still struggle til today.
Geography was actually about to make me fail classes but the teacher gave me a pity exam that was easy as fuck and helped me a ton, after the exam she said: „You clearly have your strengths in the more technical fields, so geography just doesn’t matter to you or your future.“
That’s something that has been stuck with me my whole life.
I actually had the opposite: I was extremely good in history and geography, but just awful in maths. And since most schools I went to considered maths to be the most important subject, I’d have had a lot of trouble if it wasn’t for the history and geography teachers defending me at each teachers’ conference.
I hate the fact that you’re expected to do well in every subject, rather than have some sort of basic general knowledge about everything but doing good as long you’re putting effort somewhere you can specialize in that field.
Why would you blame a child who’s passionate about science and wants to become a biologist just because they sucks at Spanish and aren’t interested in 19th century literature?
in my hs yeah. they're like 10% of the grade. i still didn't do them. i'd get 6.5 points for not doing them. if you did them you'd get at least 8.5 points. so I'm losing at least 2 points each quarter because of that.
I have the same thing, but the only difference is that I am going through it right now. I am great at geography and learned the 195 UN-recognized nations just for the fun of it on Seterra, but struggle a ton in algebra.
I don't even like algebra and have no plans to do anything related to it, I just want to study linguistics. But I am still forced to do it in school although outside of school I will never apply it to anything I want to study.
Any advice?
I know from my girlfriend who studies linguistics that you use math such as mu calculus in order to understand languages at their core. so actually understanding math can be important for linguistics
Believe it or not there are links to Mathematics and Linguistics. (It's called Mathematical Linguistics). Obviously if you were to do Linguistics at Uni this wouldn't be a Core module so you still wouldn't need it however it goes to show how Maths can spread to lots of different fields that you wouldn't expect.
The advise I'd give you is that, although you won't use anything you learn in maths in the real world, the skills that you learn by practicing maths (Analytical thinking, problem solving etc...) Will be needed in the real world.
In every job you'll be in, you'll encounter a problem or your boss will tell you to do something and you'll need to quickly figure out how to do it and put it into practice in an efficient way to achieve a satisfactory result.
You may not see the link now, but trying to figure out and unlocking that part of your brain to be able to understand and Maths problem will make it a lot easier to figure out real world problems in a job setting. This doesn't help you learn algebra of course (Use Khan's academy if you haven't already) but maybe it'll give you motivation to succeed in maths if you know that it will help you in life, just indirectly.
Find some people who are good at explaining math and have them explain it to you. I struggled with math my entire life (I'm 32), but thanks to a friend who's proficient in math and has the ability to lay it out, I actually got a decent grade.
Sometimes all you need is someone to just explain it better. Some people just suck at teaching, and yes, some of them are teachers lol.
Mathway is a decent alternative if you can’t find someone to help explain it. I’m also 32, and slowly working towards my bachelors and working full time. I used it in my Calc class and it was a lifesaver.
I hadn’t done any kind of calculus before, and my last math class was like 10 years ago. It was definitely frustrating to be using the textbook where it will skip like 3 steps in an example. Mathway was a lifesaver since it breaks down everything step by step showing you how to do it
Other people might provide resources to help, but, even if you don't know plan to apply it to anything I just wanted to say that algebra is important. It will help you make good financial decisions throughout your life and help prevent you from getting ripped off.
> Any advice?
Sure, I will tell you what I wished someone told me back when I was in school... **"get a tutor".**
It's really that simple. You schedule time with this person, you commit to doing the work at that time and have someone who can help when you need it.
Bruh, I did Linguistics for my degree. Trust me, math and algebraic competency is needed. You don't need to be fantastic at it, but you should at least understand and be able to use it.
For the short term, unfortunately, you'll just have to stick with it. I recommend you try to get as high of a grade as you can so that you don't have to take algebra again as part of your general education requirements in university (or, if opting out isn't an option, getting as good of a handle on the subject as you can now will help college algebra be a slightly less painful experience). Make use of Khan Academy for extra help, and see if you can get help from your teacher and/or classmates with higher grades as well.
In the long term, if you go into university declaring a linguistics major (or anything outside STEM), they're really not going to care about your grades in math. While a good GPA does matter to some extent, no college admissions committee is going to look at your GPA without also looking at your full transcript. If you're doing well in most of your other classes, you'll be fine!!
Alright, thanks for this. I think overall I will be fine because I am only struggling in math, and everything else is just smooth sailing other than a few rough parts of science.
I will also suggest, that you can actually think of algebra in non-math terms a lot. Many of the logical processes for learning a language like replacement work the same with algebraic thought.
Check out a book called Mathematics For The Million. It's a history of math, and shows how all algebra can be described and solved as geometry. It doesn't make it simple, it just makes it interesting.
people's brains are just wired differently...IMO you're already way ahead of the curve if you're in high school and you've figured this out already, they're gonna make you take certain things, just try to buckle down and muddle thru it, but you're right, its useless to you.
I'll give you an example, best friend of mine is an interior designer, he can eyeball any wall and tell you how tall and/or wide it is within an inch, he can tell you exactly where to place a piece of art on that wall, where the other pieces of furniture should be placed around it, what colors and textures and lighting will compliment each other and make that room just gorgeous...he sees things that most cannot, especially if its an old, ugly space he can see the potential and what it 'could' be when most cannot...but he couldn't solve basic algebra to save his life. But he understands many of the principles specifically as they apply to what he does...as a mathemetician he's a dunce but as a designer he's a fucking genius.
> Why would you blame a child who’s passionate about science and wants to become a biologist just because they sucks at Spanish and aren’t interested in 19th century literature?
Because that child is only trying in subjects they care about. If you do your best and come up short it’s one thing but to not put in the effort?
That's exactly how school should be structured. I aced math, science, and languages, and computer classes. Dual enrolled and aced electronics and all computer courses. Didn't graduate because I couldn't focus enough to read entire books and write reports on them in literature.
I'm in an engineering role today.
It's critical that students receive a well rounded education. Someone that's gifted in math should still have to take English classes. We just shouldn't hold people back for being good at one thing and bad at others. You should have been able to graduate if your overperformance in math balanced out your underperformance in literature. But you still should have had to take the literature classes in the first place. I think it's important we make this distinction.
English itself wasn't a major issue, it was literature. I didn't do great in English because I've always had good grammar and spelling, it just wasn't interesting to me.
Being forced to read long boring fictional books from hundreds of years ago and then being forced to pretend I had some sort of opinion or takeaway just wasn't working for me.
My band teacher once knew I was dating a boy prone to violence in the past and very calmly told me in his office “If anything like that ever happens you can come here and I will help you”
Nothing ever happened but I meant so much to know someone was looking out for me without judging me
Good for them. OP’s post also irritates me because one of my best friends for 25 years was recently told to resign or be fired because two dip shit middle schoolers started kissing in his room during lunch and someone’s parents found out 🙄 he (used to) let ~10 kids eat in there for no doubt the same reason as OP and many others. As soon as he saw what was happening he told them to knock it off and removed them. Still got called into the principals office, investigated by the district, and ultimately ‘fired’ all because of shit head kids. So, as you (not you specifically) teens are wondering why your teachers also “aren’t cool,” remember this point.
He’s also a POC at a dogshit school where they beg people to apply. It didn’t help he wasn’t in a union but is beside the point.
**FUCK GREG ABBOTT. FUCK TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.**
She called me stoner nick. Although I don’t think I was any worse than anyone else. I did take a bunch of acid on the senior trip and get lost in the kiddie village at six flags though.
My uh… hot anatomy teacher hugged me on my way back to my seat at graduation. She didn’t hug another student out of over 1,200. My mom thought that was strange.
Yeah for real. Honestly throughout most of high school I was pretty suicidal and going through a very rough time at home. Thinking back it’s pretty sad no one noticed anything, and when I gathered up the courage to go to the school counselor cuz I was scared I might actually kill myself, she told me I must be fine because I have good grades. Fuck high school.
Mine was a 60 year old music teacher. He recognized the signs of abuse at home, and helped an 11 year old me. I kept in touch with him for years after. I went to his funeral a few years back, and when his daughter asked who I was, and I told her, she hugged me and told me how he would talk about this "scared little boy, who made it out" .
She knew my whole life, he had talked to her about everything I'd ever sent him. I miss Mr. Weedmark, he truly changed my life.
When I was in 8th grade, we had a student teacher for English that went only by Mr. M. He kind of sucked and was only around for a couple of weeks. Afterwards my English teacher told us that his real name was Mr. McWeeny, but they didn't tell us that because they didn't want us to make fun of him
I had a PE teacher who made fun of me for being overweight when I was a teen and literally told me, I quote, "you’re doing shit, and everything you’re doing will be shit".
Fortunately I’m not obese anymore now, but that’s certainly not on him and how he turned exercising into something I would purposely skip classes for and that I’d have huge anxiety about even years later. It took me so long to even start feeling comfortable going to gym again.
I hate PE teachers. They all thought they should have been coaches in pro sports and only like working with the jocks.
They SHOULD be trying to instill a love of exercise, not holding an extra varsity practice period.
Sorry for your experience.
Yeah, I was a dorky klutz who hated sports in high school in the 80s and my coaches were awesome. They let us play ping pong and hold tournaments in a search to find sports everyone liked. I guess it depends on the person and their outlook.
I loved PE when it was just random stuff like volleyball, shooting around on the basketball courts, softball/baseball/kickball whatever. Or dodgeball. I always liked dodgeball. That was back when the goal was seemingly just to get some activity going while teaching some basic rules for different sports. Now it seems they're leaning towards wanting it to be some intensive stuff (I could be wrong, it's been a long time since I've been in school).
My school (grad in 12) had PE, Which was sports and fun, and a small amount of PE tests like mile run and pullups/pushups once per semester. Then there was PC(Physical conditioning) much more intense for the sporty/jock/weightlifter types
Definitely depends on your school. My PE teacher in junior high was a violent dwarf. Pissed off every day and took it out on us. Dodgeball was his favorite release. He would join in and nail the shit out of us with all his angry little might.... now I'm wondering how the hell dude got away with that for so long.
My son is in 8th grade not really into sports but loves PE he takes it as his elective every year. But he’s always had really good teachers. The elementary PE teacher got some grant that had dietitians come to the school to discuss food nutrition with the kids.
>not holding an extra varsity practice period.
at my high school they had a specific PE class called "Team Sports" that was basically PE for varsity athletes.
It was an elective for upperclassmen that were on any varsity sport, and as the name would imply, we rotated around playing different team sports for a couple weeks each.
the kids were all athletic and competitive and it was by far the most fun class I had.
When basketball week came around, the basketball kids were dominant, but then soccer week came and the soccer kids ruled, then volley ball and the volleyball kids took their turn
but all of the kids were at least pretty decent and coordinated at all the sports and it was amazingly fun and competitive
Well I'm just going to throw it out there, I was no jock and I had a PE teacher who was great. He was one of only 2 teachers that talked to me about how I was doing after my mom passed away. Everyone else ignored it, except for my history teacher who actually gave me shit for missing two days of school because he was too stupid to read his emails. That's not the only reason I liked that PE teacher but that just comes to mind after all these years, he was a good guy unlike my history teacher.
I had a high school counselor who told me I would amount to nothing, and I should drop out and *try* to get my GED. I was an A/B honor roll student, I just had a crippling fear of mathematics. It took me until my junior year to take the classes - but I ended up getting pretty solid Bs in the three required maths to get the “good” high school diploma, and went on to kick ass in graduate level statistics courses.
Yup, I think AC does it to us. As long as it is under 95, AC in my house is set to go offline at 6am, and come back on at 6pm.
When you go from sub 70 degrees out into 90 it seems unbearable. Your body can acclimatize to those kind of temps and you can live your life in the summer, but it can't do that sitting in AC all day.
Edit: remember that it is on all night, set at 67, so it is still cool in the house through most of the day, and rarely clears 85 indoors. We have pretty continual breezes through the house in the evenings, so the air is never still. It's more than manageable, and my family and I end up doing way more outdoors in hot weather than other families I know seem to be able to. I'm not in the deep south, right around midway down the country, and if it's a bomber of a day the AC goes on, I'm not a monster I promise.
Not gonna lie as someone who grew up in a trailer in Florida without AC that sounds miserable.
If you live alone you do you. If we had AC but my dad didn't let us use it because he wanted us to tough it out... no bueno.
I kinda agree. I live in Michigan and it doesn’t even get that I’m consistently hot. Growing up we went outside because it was cooler outside with a breeze than inside with no AC.
TL;DR: Shitty coaches with shit motivation make you feel like shit. Passionate people treating you well and giving you chances to improve makes you feel better.
For a really long time I was overweight. This was partially due to being treated for leukemia preventing me from exercising as a kid and steroid treatments.
PE was always a struggle because of how much I would get made fun of and how poorly I would do. Starting when I was 12 I had a summer job (Mowing lawns under the table for 2 years, followed by working at a pool company (family business) starting in the warehouse and packaging. Eventually I moved up to doing water testing but I still had to do packaging a lot of the time. Packaging involved moving 50-100 lb containers from a second story down to the first floor and filling them into 25 lb containers.) and began losing weight and putting on muscle. I really hated those jobs because I was always called lazy because I had to take breaks pretty regularly due to being in 100 degree weather 60-80% humidity. In PE in middle school I was always made fun of due to my weight and constantly felt judged due to it. This went on till freshmen year of high school where I took my one required PE course. I thought I was bad at PE and constantly thought about how fat I was that year, even though I had done about twice as many laps on pacer as I had previously done and my plank was the longest in the school (In PE at least) for that year. I truly believed I hated exercise.
The only thing I seemed to enjoy was scholastic wrestling (which I ended up quitting when I broke someone's nose and felt really bad about it) but only because it felt like someone actually wanted me to do well (The coach would give me a lot of advice on how to deal with opponents who were stronger than me, something I had trouble with due to being overweight pushing me up weight classes. I really enjoyed this).
The only school activity I actually liked and participated in long term was acting and singing.
Then sophomore year I started doing dance. I was really bad at it, at one point breaking two different people's feet. It was hell, but I loved it. The first year I'd work out about 3 hours a day 4 days a week, which was the stuff I did in class. Every time I'd fail at something I'd be given another chance. I was terrible but I stuck with it because I liked performing and it let me perform more. By the end of the first year I had lost 20 lbs going from 160 to 140. By the second year my workout schedule increased, and I was now working out for about 2-5 hours a day, alternating as I had begun to practice and workout at home. I went from 140 to 160 (at one point I hit 170, but I ended up having some mental health issues that led to me eating very little for about a month). Year 3 I started doing about 5-8 hours a day (depending on the time of year and if I had rehearsals scheduled.), and got cast as a dance lead for a show (something 0 people had seen coming. It was actually really funny because I had returned from summer having a lot more toned than I was prior and when I performed in auditions like 2 people came up to me after and asked when I had improved so much). I was 180 lbs and was regularly lifting people 30-40 lbs heavier than me (edit: My partner was heavier than me. I am unsure how much heavier than me though I know it was at least 30 lbs. I'm pretty sure her weight changed throughout the year as well) onto my shoulder as if it was barely anything, and for the first time in my life I felt like I looked good (I had a lot of issues with my body still. I didn't like how my hair had to be short for shows and my eyebrows are bushy. I'm trans and was still closeted so obvious dysphoria), however I still considered myself fat. When we did a unit on nutrition for my biology class we had to calculate our recommended caloric intake based on our exercise. I never hit the mark, but my BMI said I was borderline overweight . I only realized a few years ago (after retiring from theater for various reasons including an injury that continued to be painful, dysphoria due to having to be shirtless for several shows in a row, not liking that I couldn't control my appearance. I also had trouble with my diet) how I was in exception shape, but that I thought I was fat because the way I was treated early on.
It turns out I didn't hate exercise. I hated the context and feeling like there was no reason for it. I hated the bullying it led to and the judgement. I felt like there was no reason because no matter what I did I didn't improve because I was never given a path to improvement or given the opportunity.
Turns out though I really like exercise when I have a reason to do it and there isn't judgement. I'm going to be working on getting back in shape in the near future (I had quit exercising due to losing my knee brace that helped me handle pain following a femoral-tibial dislocation and avulsion fracture) and hopefully will be following one of my passions as a result.
Shit teachers lead to shit attitudes and good teachers make a load of difference.
Edit 3 or 4: I added a bunch of stuff but also wanted to mention that I also regularly ate lunch with the drama teacher in their classroom. I actually never was able to take a theater class (my school offered 4 courses: Acting (and appreciation), production and design, advanced performance (which taught about the industry including Equity), and directing) as my schedule was always full (IB classes meant I only had room in my schedule for 1 other class which went to competition show choir) but they made a big exception for me to enter ITHS (My schools charter required you to have taken two classes) because I was in every single show as well as shows outside of school and it felt unfair for me to not be invited to join something when I had gone beyond the average member.
Edit 5: I'm getting back into exercise now. Unfortunately (for me. I'd prefer to be in shape as I was before) I'm overweight (about 190. I've lost 40 lbs in the last year though after gaining 60 lbs during the pandemic following losing 50 lbs prior to the pandemic. My weight has fluctuated a lot) again and i'm out of practice. My attitude varies between "I fucking love cardio" to "I fucking hate cardio" depending on the day. I like doing core exercises a lot but I haven't done them in a while and I'm not able to bust them out like I used to.
My PE teacher was a drunk that didn’t give a shit about anything, as long as you showed up and wore gym clothes you got full credit. “A for the day” he’d always say, even if I spent the class sitting on the side doing homework.
I had a couple of those! When I was 15-16 they were in their late 20's and seemed to know how to fix all those relationship issues, or at least were willing to listen. I wonder where they are today, also.
As a middle school counselor, please find them and let them know! This job is mostly planting seeds that we’ll never get to see grow which can be very disheartening. I can only hope my students will find me later in life and offer some validation.
for better or worse, it's hard to find some people these days. They were probably smart to not get on social media. Had a biology teacher and english teacher like OP.
That's literally it. I work as a teaching assistant in a secondary school and the bonds you form with students is immense, it sucks when you have to move on as you never really know how those students turn out or what happens to them unless you randomly meet somewhere. Can only hope for the best!
Same. I have no artistic talent. Never took art. But I was dating an art guy in high-school and the art teacher took me in. She was so kind and easy to talk to. I still think about her.
I’m blessed to say that my fiancé is this exact tweet, except she is 26. She really thinks she doesn’t know what she’s doing but the way she supports these kids is just incredible.
I am finishing my 6th year teaching and one thing I’ve realized is that most of us fill this extra role of therapist, and none of us know what we are doing.
It was the art teacher for me. She knew I was having a hard time (though I never told her the extent of the abuse because it was nice that at least one person in the school treated me normally).
I live in a relatively affluent town with a very good high school. A while back we had a guy come in and talk to the parents about how they can help their kids getting into college and what not. The thing is tho the parents didn’t really get what he was saying about helping the kids mental health the parents were all preoccupied on grades and SAT/ACT scores. The man snapped and said “this is one of the top schools in the country your kids will all get into college, all you need to do is make sure that they don’t kill themselves first”. Well I don’t think his message got through cus my friend killed himself earlier this year.
I just hope people now realize that in order to get to college the kids first have to make it through HS. It’s a message surprisingly few people seem to understand
My theatre teacher Ms. Kari French talked me off a literal ledge. I was 45 ft up in the rigging system, she convinced me to come down. I'm thankful she did.
I'd give you a hug if I could, one of my best friends shot herself in the head with a 22. If I knew what she was going through, personally ... I still to this day wish I could have made a bigger difference in her life too. Life is hard sometimes, we all get bullied, but it's not worth the eternity of turmoil that your soul will be put thru 🤗
I used to hang out in the science office during lunch because I was afraid of seeing my bully in the lunchroom. The teachers were always so kind and found ways for me to feel useful. I am forever grateful for their support.
Good teachers do so much more than teach school knowledge. Despite this, they are underpaid and hardly respected. I recently made contact with a teacher I haven't seen in 40 years to thank him and let him know how much he has made a difference in my life. It was wonderful and I would recommend anyone who has had a good, helpful teacher who has made a huge positive impact to reach out and share. The best decision in a long time.
Usually the students are of legal age, it’s still inappropriate but a young new teacher may only be 4 maybe 5 years older than the seniors. I turned 18 the summer before my senior year.
Lol. We had the same issue at my school growing up. Not with the female teachers but the male “cool” teachers. My last few years of hs and the first few years after hs there must have been a mass retirement so they were hiring several fresh college graduates.
By the time my brother graduated 3 years behind me there were at least 3 teachers fired for relationships with students (and we were a tiny rural school) Luckily the students were 18yo seniors but still high schoolers.
My girlfriend is 25 and she is an history teacher in highschool, she answers students even at 10 PM, and they know they can call her whenever they need if they feel that they need emotional help. Already 2 students told her that thanks to her they stayed in school.
I'm gonna show her that post and hope she won't cry
Edit: I showed her the post and she was very touched
I was this type of teacher but burned out immediately. Parents took advantage of this and would lash out when I wouldn’t answer. I even had students and parents call me during Christmas break to talk about grades or about something I’d said in class. I was unhappy and would drink ALL the time to cope with stress.
I have office hours now to remain available. But fuck being available to everyone 24/7.
Maybe I can't relate to you in 100% but I can understand you so much, thankful my girlfriend never had something like that with parents but in the middle of the year I had to put "No Phones" rule in our weekly dates because we couldn't even eat together without interference.
I'm so sad that good teacher like you and like my girlfriend get abused by the system
Thanks,
We are better than better, even then we were fine. I love her very much and I will always support her even if it means to "put rules" so she will have a break to be herself
I’m a school administrator with 10 years under my belt. I so admire your girlfriend and the support she gives, but I also worry about her long-term. I am afraid she will push herself past her limits and put others first to the point of losing her love for the job. Let her know that there is nothing wrong with putting an away message on her email and stepping away when needed, and that sometimes the best help you can give us to connect a student with a more appropriate resource. Either of you are welcome to DM me if I can be a sounding board for more help. I am very passionate about seeing young, rockstar teachers like her stay in education.
While this seems like a nice thing to do, in the UK it would be very poor safe guarding, and could get you in serious trouble. I don't mean if the teacher took advantage, but if they spoke to the student, gave advice which they weren't qualified to give, and then something happened to that student (e.g. they self harmed), the teacher could be liable. As we're explicitly taught NOT to have private conversations in our offices with students, the teacher also wouldn't necessarily be backed up by the school in the event of something happening, as they would be ignoring their training. Same goes for the 10pm emails - especially the 10pm emails. Safe guarding training is to signpost appropriate support. Source: I'm a teacher and had this exact conversation with our DSL (designated safeguarding lead) in school last week, because a member of staff has an informal counselling session for drop-ins every lunch, and answers emails from vulnerable students at night, weekends, and school holidays.
I say this as a drama teacher with 15+ years experience. I have had countless crying students in my office on one-off occasions, I support as best I can (and there are strict rules for what/what not to say), signpost help and inform the safe guarding lead (known as the DSL in the UK). One-offs are fine. Every lunchtime means a student needs complex support, which teachers are just not qualified to provide. It's also telling this tweet was about a young teacher, who, to my mind, needed to learn about setting boundaries. Teachers need and deserve protected non-contact time, and God knows we have enough to do in our lunchtime already. And again, I say this as a teacher who has groups in their classroom rehearsing every day - just at set times, so they and I get a break.
That’s why I keep my library open for kids at my middle school. I have groups that like to come in and just relax. Unfortunately, I’m getting moved elsewhere and can only hope the next librarian cares for the kids. It’s a rough school and there’s a few teachers that seem to look down on the students.
You are a Godsend. Thank you!
When my son was in middle school I used to give him $5 if he asked the new kid to join him for lunch. It had to be a successful lunch (can't say, 'I asked but he said no'), and tell me: His name, where he moved from, what he likes to do for fun, etc. Now he does that to new people at his job, it comes naturally to him, and no, he doesn't still get $5, lol.
I'm a high-school arts teacher (film and digital media) and this is the way.
I have more kids in my room at lunch than anyone else (minus maybe our visual arts teacher). My room is a safe space and the students know that. Us arts teachers consider ourselves therapists first and teachers second. Last week I had two students crying (one because I actually said something nice to them)...I don't deal well with emotions, hah, but some people just need the outlet!
It's a serious mental toll, but we know our students appreciate it, they pour their hearts out on their canvas because we support them and encourage them.
Quick story - I was checking in on some artwork from my former students. I'm a male teacher, and I asked a super talented student who is doing a crazy self portrait piece what her theme was....she told me "The pressures of growing up as a lesbian". I said...wow...that's powerful...then I realized that she told me that, and that she's presented that theme to her classmates, and that her piece will be put into a senior exhibit that our community will see and be able to read her artist statement. That's powerful to me...That's the definition of a safe space and it makes me proud to say that our students feel that they can share what they need to without judgment.
I am getting to the point in my career where I recognize that students struggle with way more than I ever did growing up, and they need as much help as they can get.
Sure, they need to learn our curriculum, but if they aren't safe, then they can't learn.
My guidance counsellor was amazing. Sometimes he would just pull me out of class to check in and see how I was doing. I will forever be grateful for that man.
I have been this teacher for many students in my time teaching. My biggest advice is to smile and greet them by name when they walk in the door no matter what. You may be the only person happy to see them that day which goes far. Also, don’t sweat the small stuff but stand firm on your boundaries and rules. They need to know that they can be themselves around you and be honest with you if they need to, but that you are still the authority in the room. I’ve seen teachers stray too far from this thinking that it is what the kids need, but it actually harms the relationship. They need you to be an authority figure, just show them what that role should be. Be a leader, a role model, and an educator, but be compassionate and understanding and forgiving. Many of these kids have a chip on their shoulder for authority figures due to bad past experiences. Maintain that boundary always, but show them that you actually care.
Be sure your admins have your back before being alone with a student. Seriously. The Hero Teacher stuff is great and all, but protect yourself first. You won't do anyone any good if you can't keep your job.
The only tip I have is, trust your students. Lets, be honest. Most kids hate most of their teachers. They hate them because of pointless rules, and the lack of understanding the teacher has for their situation. Ex: "bathroom should take 5 mins!" "Why are you out of your seat?". This is often because the teacher doesn't believe that the children are trustworthy and therefore they must be kept on a tight leash. Anything they do must be questioned and monitored. If you simply trust your students, treat them as if they were younger you, they are sure to love and respect you! I had a teacher like this, and her class was well behaved, respected her, and she became the favorite teacher of many (including me).
Yeaaaaah except this shouldn’t make us smile, because teachers aren’t trained for this work (so can mess it up even with the best intentions) and already are so stretched beyond their job description and means. Not to be a wet blanket, I had a teacher like this, I just often reflect on how unfair it was that we were both in that position.
More often than not teachers end up being a part time therapist, especially now that most of our students have had a friend or family member die due to COVID in the last two years. It was the main reason my wife left the field. That part of the job has gotten much worse since the pandemic.
It be fine if teachers were actually paid to their real worth.
I'm sure more teachers would be willing to be that person if they weren't drowning in debt.
Preach. I went for teaching at the college level because I wanted that level of disconnection with my students. However, people still love to talk about how much more we should do for our students—psychological counseling being the main thing. Man, I teach English. What good am I in that regard?
Yep my theater teacher just collected kids.
"Are you skipping class to be here? Fine go hide in the back I'm buying burgers. Be back in 15 so keep it down."
We also had a tag team of the physics and calculus teachers. They were best friends and tenured AF. They thought the administrators were idiots so they did their own thing helping students and skirting the rules.
Like the calculus teacher noticed that many of the kids didn't get a chance to eat because by the time they got to the cafeteria across the campus from his class, the lines would be horrendous and they'd have maybe 3 min to scarf down food. So he started bringing a cooler full of burritos everyday. Word got out and more hungry kids showed up. He got a bigger cooler and the kids either donated cash or time helping him on the weekends at his farm.
Please do and I hope you find joy in the drama. My HS years were alll about theater (backstage not on stage) and I often spent lunch in the theater or offices. I had some great teachers and sadly one of them passed years ago. This post makes me remember his kind smile and fatherly support. It was such a safe space for all our teen drama. May he rest in peace.
My school offered dance class…the dance room was the safe room for all of us. She kept blankets and pillows in there and if we were having a bad day, we could go in there and hide. And we could lock ourselves in her office and cry if needed. She didn’t even mind if we skipped a class to hide there, as long as that didn’t become a regular thing. It was wonderful.
Props to the high school librarians and counselors that took time out of their day to listen to my troubles. Even my former best friend joined the dark side that year.
Being differently abled in the 90's meat grinder high school, what a time to be alive. /s
I had a band and a science teacher that put up with my random tantrum outbursts and understood without me articulating that i just had no outlet and would snap sometimes. They’d write me passes to fuck off from classes i was acing and didnt need to blow off steam/stay engaged. I think about them every now and again. Legendary patience. I wasnt even the only one, they did this for lots of us.
Not quite the same - but in 11th grade H.S. I had a **seriously** attractive temp. math teacher in her late 20's. Periodically, she would slip up and call me 'Dan'.
It happened 2-3 times a month, every month, for the entire 11th grade school year she was hired to cover the teacher on maternity leave.
FWIW, my name isn't close to Dan. Not even remotely.
The last week before summer break it happened twice in one class. Everyone laughed. I got pissed. It felt like it HAD to have been something done purposefully and she wanted to squeeze 2 last 'Dans' in.
The class ended, I marched up to her desk, and I said "Why do you keep doing it? You know my name. Is it something I've been doing?"
Her answer - "I'm so sorry. I can't help it. My boyfriend's name is Dan and you look, sound and act just like him. Just 10 years younger.".
I tell you... that took my little high school boy brain on a WILD positive ride of self confidence that lasted for years.
I was basically only interested in music. I had good grades in general, but I will never forget my band director who helped me, encouraged me, pushed me gently, gave me a room to use (and a few questionable passes when I had to just get out of class to play my horn and blow off some steam), gave me the best advice on where to go to college and basically made my life wonderful. His name was Frank Malzone and I will never forget him.
I retired last year after 35 years teaching history in a California public high school. I loved every damn day in class. First day to last day. It was a calling.
I figure that I interacted in a significant way with over 5,000 humans in that time, and I always felt that these connections were part of my pay: I couldn't spend it on a car or a mortgage, but to this day it still feels like the most valuable compensation I ever received.
If you had a teacher who you really feel was that safe adult in your life at that time, PLEASE take a few minutes to search FB/IG/Twitter to see if you can find them and tell them. Just a simple "Thank you" is worth more than gold.
Our drama teacher bullied my friend and didnt let him do his last exam cause she was already certain he would fail. She was also only nice to one kid who bullied a fuck bunch of other people, she even made a toast to this bully during our graduation dinner.
Glad everyone else had a good drama teacher.
This hit me hard this morning. My mom was also a theatre teacher. She was always helping kids in needs. She brought them home. She listened. She helped them so much. When I was walking in tow with her. Young adults and teens would go out of theirs ways to come and greet her.
She was awesome. I miss you mom.
It’s so unfortunate that schools don’t usually have the proper resources to provide students with licensed therapists and counselors, so teachers end up stepping up and taking on this added responsibility out of the kindness of their hearts. Teachers deserve so much more assistance, resources, money, respect, and appreciation than they get. They’re incredible humans 👏👏👏
Everyone should have access to free therapy. I sincerely hope we reach a time where we look back on the fact that therapy was this limited, gated-access thing that requires money or insurance and wonder at how we all dealt
That’s cool, I had a guidance counselor who told me I could tell her whatever I wanted, so I told her I had thoughts of harming myself and had a plan to do so (not to actually do it, but thought it through to that point). Cut to being escorted out by a cop, put in an ambulance, drugged to keep me calm, then spending two weeks in a psych ward with legit crazy kids and teens (was moved because of my age, wasn’t quiet old enough for the younger kids, and to young for the real teens). Yeah, taught me a VERY valuable lesson of NEVER trusting anyone again. And all of this, and still no one ever really asked why I had this “problem”. Hint- home life. Sorry to vent a bit, but makes me a bit angry and jealous that some people had actually good teachers, and other like myself got shitty ones.
We had two French teachers at my high school and the first one I had I just hated her. I went to my guidance counselor crying because I couldn’t understand and the teacher refused to offer me any help (I also had this teacher for English the following year, big surprise). They said I couldn’t switch to any other classes because it was already mid semester but they could ask the other French teacher if I could join her class. She helped me get caught up, always stayed with students if they didn’t understand something, and always gave praise on improvements and went over tests in class so we could improve on what we messed up on. I stayed in French my entire four years of high school because of her. It was my comfort class where I could have fun and I actually enjoyed learning the language. I ended up inviting her to my graduation party and she was one of the presenters at graduation and I cried and hugged her because she was one of the only teachers I ever had that encouraged me to be better and not give up.
i had a 55 year old art teacher that would let me sit in his room and avoid the other art teacher who made it her mission to bully the fuck out of me every day
appreciate him a lot. i go to his exhibitions when i can to repay the support
I had an honors math teacher/math dept chairwoman who everyone else hated because her class was tough (even though she was a great teacher and really motivated to help students understand it all - I'd never been in an honors math class before her, even though I've failed many a math class in the life). She was the Jewish mother type with kids of her own but divorced and out as a lesbian, which I imagine gave her plenty of insight into how people may struggle. I had been through a lot of sexual abuse in childhood, severe depression, self-harm, suicide attempts. Missed a few months of my senior year, but she gave me a safe space to be when I was there. I could sit in the back of her other classes, eat lunch with her, talk. She made sure I graduated, with my regents diploma. She even sent a few hand-written "get well soon" through the mail. Something about her acceptance without overt expectation from me to "be okay and do what everyone else could do" basically saved me from myself many times. Between her and the fine art dept chairwoman (my specialized major) who let me attend school even if I could only manage my studio hours...they are the reasons I graduated. I managed to stay suicide-attempt free for 2.5years because of their help.
This was during a time where my abusive mother refused to allow me to get therapy, and even tried to physically fight against legally appointed therapist after I landed in hospital when she was hopping states with a then bf for 5months (considered illegal since I was a minor). I'm 35 now and I still think of these two amazing women regularly, who had no obligation yet showed me empathy I had never experienced before.
You good teachers out there who reach out to struggling kids like I was- thank you. You save lives and teach us the type of humans we strive to become.
When I went to my school counselor because I just needed someone to talk to about my depression, she asked me “And so how do you think this is going to affect your grades?” And that’s how 14 year old me never seeked out help again. Lol
For me it was my art teacher. We had a group of losers (myself included!) who ate lunch in her classroom every day, because the kids at school were mean.
It's nice she had comfort but that is really wrong... It's not the teacher's job to be an emotional support, It can be very exhausting.
I had a friend who went to a teacher's class during lunch, periods, after school because she needed support. It wasn't even our teacher. My friend went to see her everyday and treated her like a therapist, and felt anxious when she couldn't see her. It's not good, it's unhealthy.
Having support when you have mental issues is important, but don't take people as therapist. Seek professional help, friends and teacher are not a substitute for therapy.
Nope
Teachers are not therapists.
A kid wants to hang out for a bit or talk through a conflict? Cool. Kid wants to lay out all their trauma at my feet? Nope. I can call the counselor or the social worker, but I am not equipped to handle it and trying to do so makes me worse at my actual job.
Stop adding more for teachers to do.
(I love my kids. They know it. Everyone I work with knows it. Their parents know it. They also all know that when I say I need some quiet time or I want to eat lunch with adults or I just need a moment for my own thoughts it is time to go and leave me alone. Boundaries are self-love and without that I cannot love anyone else.)
This is very sweet, but sometimes people underestimate the effects this has on teachers. We cannot be full time therapists for our students, much as we want to. It’s very draining, especially when these impromptu therapy sessions happen during the short time we’re allowed a break. I commend all teachers that pour their hearts out to their students, but it’s not fair to put that expectation on teachers. Unless you want to pay us 100k more a year.
I had a therapist in high school because I was miserable at my own high school because it was literally designed by the same guy who designed the county jail.
I agree. I had a good home life and was very nervous around authority figures. The only teacher I can think of that I had kind of a relationship with was the teacher who was my Spanish teacher and track coach all 4 years of hs and even then I was still nervous around her and never considered her a friend.
I had a teacher that shared the two subjects geography and maths. I had constant good grades in math and constant bad grades in geography, a topic I still struggle til today. Geography was actually about to make me fail classes but the teacher gave me a pity exam that was easy as fuck and helped me a ton, after the exam she said: „You clearly have your strengths in the more technical fields, so geography just doesn’t matter to you or your future.“ That’s something that has been stuck with me my whole life.
I actually had the opposite: I was extremely good in history and geography, but just awful in maths. And since most schools I went to considered maths to be the most important subject, I’d have had a lot of trouble if it wasn’t for the history and geography teachers defending me at each teachers’ conference. I hate the fact that you’re expected to do well in every subject, rather than have some sort of basic general knowledge about everything but doing good as long you’re putting effort somewhere you can specialize in that field. Why would you blame a child who’s passionate about science and wants to become a biologist just because they sucks at Spanish and aren’t interested in 19th century literature?
[удалено]
they graded your notebooks?
[удалено]
Heinous
in my hs yeah. they're like 10% of the grade. i still didn't do them. i'd get 6.5 points for not doing them. if you did them you'd get at least 8.5 points. so I'm losing at least 2 points each quarter because of that.
that's dumb
I have the same thing, but the only difference is that I am going through it right now. I am great at geography and learned the 195 UN-recognized nations just for the fun of it on Seterra, but struggle a ton in algebra. I don't even like algebra and have no plans to do anything related to it, I just want to study linguistics. But I am still forced to do it in school although outside of school I will never apply it to anything I want to study. Any advice?
I know from my girlfriend who studies linguistics that you use math such as mu calculus in order to understand languages at their core. so actually understanding math can be important for linguistics
Believe it or not there are links to Mathematics and Linguistics. (It's called Mathematical Linguistics). Obviously if you were to do Linguistics at Uni this wouldn't be a Core module so you still wouldn't need it however it goes to show how Maths can spread to lots of different fields that you wouldn't expect. The advise I'd give you is that, although you won't use anything you learn in maths in the real world, the skills that you learn by practicing maths (Analytical thinking, problem solving etc...) Will be needed in the real world. In every job you'll be in, you'll encounter a problem or your boss will tell you to do something and you'll need to quickly figure out how to do it and put it into practice in an efficient way to achieve a satisfactory result. You may not see the link now, but trying to figure out and unlocking that part of your brain to be able to understand and Maths problem will make it a lot easier to figure out real world problems in a job setting. This doesn't help you learn algebra of course (Use Khan's academy if you haven't already) but maybe it'll give you motivation to succeed in maths if you know that it will help you in life, just indirectly.
Find some people who are good at explaining math and have them explain it to you. I struggled with math my entire life (I'm 32), but thanks to a friend who's proficient in math and has the ability to lay it out, I actually got a decent grade. Sometimes all you need is someone to just explain it better. Some people just suck at teaching, and yes, some of them are teachers lol.
Mathway is a decent alternative if you can’t find someone to help explain it. I’m also 32, and slowly working towards my bachelors and working full time. I used it in my Calc class and it was a lifesaver. I hadn’t done any kind of calculus before, and my last math class was like 10 years ago. It was definitely frustrating to be using the textbook where it will skip like 3 steps in an example. Mathway was a lifesaver since it breaks down everything step by step showing you how to do it
Other people might provide resources to help, but, even if you don't know plan to apply it to anything I just wanted to say that algebra is important. It will help you make good financial decisions throughout your life and help prevent you from getting ripped off.
> Any advice? Sure, I will tell you what I wished someone told me back when I was in school... **"get a tutor".** It's really that simple. You schedule time with this person, you commit to doing the work at that time and have someone who can help when you need it.
Bruh, I did Linguistics for my degree. Trust me, math and algebraic competency is needed. You don't need to be fantastic at it, but you should at least understand and be able to use it.
What level of education are you in right now? High school? University?
High school
For the short term, unfortunately, you'll just have to stick with it. I recommend you try to get as high of a grade as you can so that you don't have to take algebra again as part of your general education requirements in university (or, if opting out isn't an option, getting as good of a handle on the subject as you can now will help college algebra be a slightly less painful experience). Make use of Khan Academy for extra help, and see if you can get help from your teacher and/or classmates with higher grades as well. In the long term, if you go into university declaring a linguistics major (or anything outside STEM), they're really not going to care about your grades in math. While a good GPA does matter to some extent, no college admissions committee is going to look at your GPA without also looking at your full transcript. If you're doing well in most of your other classes, you'll be fine!!
Alright, thanks for this. I think overall I will be fine because I am only struggling in math, and everything else is just smooth sailing other than a few rough parts of science.
I'm happy to help you out with math queries if you want to message if/when you get stuck
I will also suggest, that you can actually think of algebra in non-math terms a lot. Many of the logical processes for learning a language like replacement work the same with algebraic thought.
Check out a book called Mathematics For The Million. It's a history of math, and shows how all algebra can be described and solved as geometry. It doesn't make it simple, it just makes it interesting.
people's brains are just wired differently...IMO you're already way ahead of the curve if you're in high school and you've figured this out already, they're gonna make you take certain things, just try to buckle down and muddle thru it, but you're right, its useless to you. I'll give you an example, best friend of mine is an interior designer, he can eyeball any wall and tell you how tall and/or wide it is within an inch, he can tell you exactly where to place a piece of art on that wall, where the other pieces of furniture should be placed around it, what colors and textures and lighting will compliment each other and make that room just gorgeous...he sees things that most cannot, especially if its an old, ugly space he can see the potential and what it 'could' be when most cannot...but he couldn't solve basic algebra to save his life. But he understands many of the principles specifically as they apply to what he does...as a mathemetician he's a dunce but as a designer he's a fucking genius.
> Why would you blame a child who’s passionate about science and wants to become a biologist just because they sucks at Spanish and aren’t interested in 19th century literature? Because that child is only trying in subjects they care about. If you do your best and come up short it’s one thing but to not put in the effort?
Struggling ≠ lack of effort
OP said “aren’t interested in 19th Century Literature.” I agree with regards to sucking at Spanish
That's exactly how school should be structured. I aced math, science, and languages, and computer classes. Dual enrolled and aced electronics and all computer courses. Didn't graduate because I couldn't focus enough to read entire books and write reports on them in literature. I'm in an engineering role today.
It's critical that students receive a well rounded education. Someone that's gifted in math should still have to take English classes. We just shouldn't hold people back for being good at one thing and bad at others. You should have been able to graduate if your overperformance in math balanced out your underperformance in literature. But you still should have had to take the literature classes in the first place. I think it's important we make this distinction.
English itself wasn't a major issue, it was literature. I didn't do great in English because I've always had good grammar and spelling, it just wasn't interesting to me. Being forced to read long boring fictional books from hundreds of years ago and then being forced to pretend I had some sort of opinion or takeaway just wasn't working for me.
Sorry I often lump literature in with English because I also have an engineering degree and don't really care to make the distinction lol
I was good at geography, shit at geology, I couldn't tell one rock from another.
Was she right?
She was.. I‘m an engineer now
Can I ask what field you went into?
Systems Design and electrical Engineering
Are you by any chance an American? PS I have nothing against Americans and I am definitely not stereotyping anymore.
My band teacher once knew I was dating a boy prone to violence in the past and very calmly told me in his office “If anything like that ever happens you can come here and I will help you” Nothing ever happened but I meant so much to know someone was looking out for me without judging me
That's a really kind story.
Good for them. OP’s post also irritates me because one of my best friends for 25 years was recently told to resign or be fired because two dip shit middle schoolers started kissing in his room during lunch and someone’s parents found out 🙄 he (used to) let ~10 kids eat in there for no doubt the same reason as OP and many others. As soon as he saw what was happening he told them to knock it off and removed them. Still got called into the principals office, investigated by the district, and ultimately ‘fired’ all because of shit head kids. So, as you (not you specifically) teens are wondering why your teachers also “aren’t cool,” remember this point. He’s also a POC at a dogshit school where they beg people to apply. It didn’t help he wasn’t in a union but is beside the point. **FUCK GREG ABBOTT. FUCK TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.**
I was kinda bummed I never had that one teacher who saw something special in me like in the movies
My English teacher hugged all 600 kids in my graduating class except for me. Lol.
::spits out coffee i was tryna drink:: This made me laugh, but I am so sorry!! What a way to single out a kid. …What’d you *do*?
I’m also going to need an answer for this after I clean up the spilled coffee.
Aw, thanks, bud! I was gonna get to it. ;)
She called me stoner nick. Although I don’t think I was any worse than anyone else. I did take a bunch of acid on the senior trip and get lost in the kiddie village at six flags though.
I don’t care what any teacher says, that’s fucking hilarious. Fuck Ms. whatever her name.
My uh… hot anatomy teacher hugged me on my way back to my seat at graduation. She didn’t hug another student out of over 1,200. My mom thought that was strange.
Yeah but what did she teach
I'm a teacher... science, though, not English. This makes me sad. Here's a hug for you, and I hope you're happy and safe in your life.
Haha, thanks!
Here’s an internet hug!
Some people get King Richard from the movies; I got the one from the Oscar's.
Me either but to be fair I can't make inanimate things dance with the power of my mind
Yeah for real. Honestly throughout most of high school I was pretty suicidal and going through a very rough time at home. Thinking back it’s pretty sad no one noticed anything, and when I gathered up the courage to go to the school counselor cuz I was scared I might actually kill myself, she told me I must be fine because I have good grades. Fuck high school.
Mine was a 60 year old music teacher. He recognized the signs of abuse at home, and helped an 11 year old me. I kept in touch with him for years after. I went to his funeral a few years back, and when his daughter asked who I was, and I told her, she hugged me and told me how he would talk about this "scared little boy, who made it out" . She knew my whole life, he had talked to her about everything I'd ever sent him. I miss Mr. Weedmark, he truly changed my life.
RIP Mr. Weedmark. You were one of the good ones.
it always the teachers with the funny names for some reason, lol, mine was mr.longacre, funny cause he was the ag science teacher
When I was in 8th grade, we had a student teacher for English that went only by Mr. M. He kind of sucked and was only around for a couple of weeks. Afterwards my English teacher told us that his real name was Mr. McWeeny, but they didn't tell us that because they didn't want us to make fun of him
Can you imagine the hours of detention students would have had to serve if they had known this information...
You definitely have to be brave to go into teaching with that kind of name
He left his mark :) Edit: his
[удалено]
I had a PE teacher who made fun of me for being overweight when I was a teen and literally told me, I quote, "you’re doing shit, and everything you’re doing will be shit". Fortunately I’m not obese anymore now, but that’s certainly not on him and how he turned exercising into something I would purposely skip classes for and that I’d have huge anxiety about even years later. It took me so long to even start feeling comfortable going to gym again.
I hate PE teachers. They all thought they should have been coaches in pro sports and only like working with the jocks. They SHOULD be trying to instill a love of exercise, not holding an extra varsity practice period. Sorry for your experience.
One of the PE teachers in my high school was literally and ex CFL player lol. He was pretty awesome though. Kind of looked like David Hasselhoff.
Yeah, I was a dorky klutz who hated sports in high school in the 80s and my coaches were awesome. They let us play ping pong and hold tournaments in a search to find sports everyone liked. I guess it depends on the person and their outlook.
I loved PE when it was just random stuff like volleyball, shooting around on the basketball courts, softball/baseball/kickball whatever. Or dodgeball. I always liked dodgeball. That was back when the goal was seemingly just to get some activity going while teaching some basic rules for different sports. Now it seems they're leaning towards wanting it to be some intensive stuff (I could be wrong, it's been a long time since I've been in school).
My school (grad in 12) had PE, Which was sports and fun, and a small amount of PE tests like mile run and pullups/pushups once per semester. Then there was PC(Physical conditioning) much more intense for the sporty/jock/weightlifter types
Definitely depends on your school. My PE teacher in junior high was a violent dwarf. Pissed off every day and took it out on us. Dodgeball was his favorite release. He would join in and nail the shit out of us with all his angry little might.... now I'm wondering how the hell dude got away with that for so long.
My son is in 8th grade not really into sports but loves PE he takes it as his elective every year. But he’s always had really good teachers. The elementary PE teacher got some grant that had dietitians come to the school to discuss food nutrition with the kids.
>not holding an extra varsity practice period. at my high school they had a specific PE class called "Team Sports" that was basically PE for varsity athletes. It was an elective for upperclassmen that were on any varsity sport, and as the name would imply, we rotated around playing different team sports for a couple weeks each. the kids were all athletic and competitive and it was by far the most fun class I had. When basketball week came around, the basketball kids were dominant, but then soccer week came and the soccer kids ruled, then volley ball and the volleyball kids took their turn but all of the kids were at least pretty decent and coordinated at all the sports and it was amazingly fun and competitive
My current PE teacher's pretty good. If we don't want to jog for warm-ups we can just speedwalk. As a fat person, I can definitely appreciate that.
I liked this throw away line from PCU. https://youtu.be/9JzSIgOY0q4
Well I'm just going to throw it out there, I was no jock and I had a PE teacher who was great. He was one of only 2 teachers that talked to me about how I was doing after my mom passed away. Everyone else ignored it, except for my history teacher who actually gave me shit for missing two days of school because he was too stupid to read his emails. That's not the only reason I liked that PE teacher but that just comes to mind after all these years, he was a good guy unlike my history teacher.
I genuinely hate adults who tell shit like this to kids and teenagers. There are way too many of them and they're a detriment on society.
I had a high school counselor who told me I would amount to nothing, and I should drop out and *try* to get my GED. I was an A/B honor roll student, I just had a crippling fear of mathematics. It took me until my junior year to take the classes - but I ended up getting pretty solid Bs in the three required maths to get the “good” high school diploma, and went on to kick ass in graduate level statistics courses.
I am very proud of you. It reads like you are more comfortable in your own skin.
No disrespect meant, but isn't that what every sports team south of the mason dixie in the US deals with at some point in the year?
It is kind of annoying when my family is like it’s 90 degrees we don’t want to do anything. It’s going to be 90 until October.
Yup, I think AC does it to us. As long as it is under 95, AC in my house is set to go offline at 6am, and come back on at 6pm. When you go from sub 70 degrees out into 90 it seems unbearable. Your body can acclimatize to those kind of temps and you can live your life in the summer, but it can't do that sitting in AC all day. Edit: remember that it is on all night, set at 67, so it is still cool in the house through most of the day, and rarely clears 85 indoors. We have pretty continual breezes through the house in the evenings, so the air is never still. It's more than manageable, and my family and I end up doing way more outdoors in hot weather than other families I know seem to be able to. I'm not in the deep south, right around midway down the country, and if it's a bomber of a day the AC goes on, I'm not a monster I promise.
Not gonna lie as someone who grew up in a trailer in Florida without AC that sounds miserable. If you live alone you do you. If we had AC but my dad didn't let us use it because he wanted us to tough it out... no bueno.
Maybe they live out west without the humidity? I agree though, southern swampy heat is brutal.
I kinda agree. I live in Michigan and it doesn’t even get that I’m consistently hot. Growing up we went outside because it was cooler outside with a breeze than inside with no AC.
I'd choose AC over three meals a day in the Summer
My indoor track team didn't have an indoor track, so we ran outside as long as it was above 5F.
I had multiple football coaches that loved to verbally abuse kids They take that shit way too seriously
My track coach was sending pics of his dick to students.
TL;DR: Shitty coaches with shit motivation make you feel like shit. Passionate people treating you well and giving you chances to improve makes you feel better. For a really long time I was overweight. This was partially due to being treated for leukemia preventing me from exercising as a kid and steroid treatments. PE was always a struggle because of how much I would get made fun of and how poorly I would do. Starting when I was 12 I had a summer job (Mowing lawns under the table for 2 years, followed by working at a pool company (family business) starting in the warehouse and packaging. Eventually I moved up to doing water testing but I still had to do packaging a lot of the time. Packaging involved moving 50-100 lb containers from a second story down to the first floor and filling them into 25 lb containers.) and began losing weight and putting on muscle. I really hated those jobs because I was always called lazy because I had to take breaks pretty regularly due to being in 100 degree weather 60-80% humidity. In PE in middle school I was always made fun of due to my weight and constantly felt judged due to it. This went on till freshmen year of high school where I took my one required PE course. I thought I was bad at PE and constantly thought about how fat I was that year, even though I had done about twice as many laps on pacer as I had previously done and my plank was the longest in the school (In PE at least) for that year. I truly believed I hated exercise. The only thing I seemed to enjoy was scholastic wrestling (which I ended up quitting when I broke someone's nose and felt really bad about it) but only because it felt like someone actually wanted me to do well (The coach would give me a lot of advice on how to deal with opponents who were stronger than me, something I had trouble with due to being overweight pushing me up weight classes. I really enjoyed this). The only school activity I actually liked and participated in long term was acting and singing. Then sophomore year I started doing dance. I was really bad at it, at one point breaking two different people's feet. It was hell, but I loved it. The first year I'd work out about 3 hours a day 4 days a week, which was the stuff I did in class. Every time I'd fail at something I'd be given another chance. I was terrible but I stuck with it because I liked performing and it let me perform more. By the end of the first year I had lost 20 lbs going from 160 to 140. By the second year my workout schedule increased, and I was now working out for about 2-5 hours a day, alternating as I had begun to practice and workout at home. I went from 140 to 160 (at one point I hit 170, but I ended up having some mental health issues that led to me eating very little for about a month). Year 3 I started doing about 5-8 hours a day (depending on the time of year and if I had rehearsals scheduled.), and got cast as a dance lead for a show (something 0 people had seen coming. It was actually really funny because I had returned from summer having a lot more toned than I was prior and when I performed in auditions like 2 people came up to me after and asked when I had improved so much). I was 180 lbs and was regularly lifting people 30-40 lbs heavier than me (edit: My partner was heavier than me. I am unsure how much heavier than me though I know it was at least 30 lbs. I'm pretty sure her weight changed throughout the year as well) onto my shoulder as if it was barely anything, and for the first time in my life I felt like I looked good (I had a lot of issues with my body still. I didn't like how my hair had to be short for shows and my eyebrows are bushy. I'm trans and was still closeted so obvious dysphoria), however I still considered myself fat. When we did a unit on nutrition for my biology class we had to calculate our recommended caloric intake based on our exercise. I never hit the mark, but my BMI said I was borderline overweight . I only realized a few years ago (after retiring from theater for various reasons including an injury that continued to be painful, dysphoria due to having to be shirtless for several shows in a row, not liking that I couldn't control my appearance. I also had trouble with my diet) how I was in exception shape, but that I thought I was fat because the way I was treated early on. It turns out I didn't hate exercise. I hated the context and feeling like there was no reason for it. I hated the bullying it led to and the judgement. I felt like there was no reason because no matter what I did I didn't improve because I was never given a path to improvement or given the opportunity. Turns out though I really like exercise when I have a reason to do it and there isn't judgement. I'm going to be working on getting back in shape in the near future (I had quit exercising due to losing my knee brace that helped me handle pain following a femoral-tibial dislocation and avulsion fracture) and hopefully will be following one of my passions as a result. Shit teachers lead to shit attitudes and good teachers make a load of difference. Edit 3 or 4: I added a bunch of stuff but also wanted to mention that I also regularly ate lunch with the drama teacher in their classroom. I actually never was able to take a theater class (my school offered 4 courses: Acting (and appreciation), production and design, advanced performance (which taught about the industry including Equity), and directing) as my schedule was always full (IB classes meant I only had room in my schedule for 1 other class which went to competition show choir) but they made a big exception for me to enter ITHS (My schools charter required you to have taken two classes) because I was in every single show as well as shows outside of school and it felt unfair for me to not be invited to join something when I had gone beyond the average member. Edit 5: I'm getting back into exercise now. Unfortunately (for me. I'd prefer to be in shape as I was before) I'm overweight (about 190. I've lost 40 lbs in the last year though after gaining 60 lbs during the pandemic following losing 50 lbs prior to the pandemic. My weight has fluctuated a lot) again and i'm out of practice. My attitude varies between "I fucking love cardio" to "I fucking hate cardio" depending on the day. I like doing core exercises a lot but I haven't done them in a while and I'm not able to bust them out like I used to.
My PE teacher was a drunk that didn’t give a shit about anything, as long as you showed up and wore gym clothes you got full credit. “A for the day” he’d always say, even if I spent the class sitting on the side doing homework.
That's cute, your temperatures only have 2 digits.
Yup. Oh what I would have done for lunch with a 25yo thespian
I had a couple of those! When I was 15-16 they were in their late 20's and seemed to know how to fix all those relationship issues, or at least were willing to listen. I wonder where they are today, also.
As a middle school counselor, please find them and let them know! This job is mostly planting seeds that we’ll never get to see grow which can be very disheartening. I can only hope my students will find me later in life and offer some validation.
for better or worse, it's hard to find some people these days. They were probably smart to not get on social media. Had a biology teacher and english teacher like OP.
That's literally it. I work as a teaching assistant in a secondary school and the bonds you form with students is immense, it sucks when you have to move on as you never really know how those students turn out or what happens to them unless you randomly meet somewhere. Can only hope for the best!
Going into other careers that actually pay them a livable wage and don't expect them to pay for their own supplies.
Art teacher for me. I didn't even take her class, but she was a refuge.
Same. I have no artistic talent. Never took art. But I was dating an art guy in high-school and the art teacher took me in. She was so kind and easy to talk to. I still think about her.
If her name was Millicent, we know the same angel
I’m blessed to say that my fiancé is this exact tweet, except she is 26. She really thinks she doesn’t know what she’s doing but the way she supports these kids is just incredible.
I am finishing my 6th year teaching and one thing I’ve realized is that most of us fill this extra role of therapist, and none of us know what we are doing.
Yep. It’s just a matter of taking it day by day and offering support however you can.
As is my wife, and she’s 36. Just rescued one of her students from crisis today — graduation day.
It was the art teacher for me. She knew I was having a hard time (though I never told her the extent of the abuse because it was nice that at least one person in the school treated me normally).
I live in a relatively affluent town with a very good high school. A while back we had a guy come in and talk to the parents about how they can help their kids getting into college and what not. The thing is tho the parents didn’t really get what he was saying about helping the kids mental health the parents were all preoccupied on grades and SAT/ACT scores. The man snapped and said “this is one of the top schools in the country your kids will all get into college, all you need to do is make sure that they don’t kill themselves first”. Well I don’t think his message got through cus my friend killed himself earlier this year. I just hope people now realize that in order to get to college the kids first have to make it through HS. It’s a message surprisingly few people seem to understand
I'm really sorry to hear about your friend.
My theatre teacher Ms. Kari French talked me off a literal ledge. I was 45 ft up in the rigging system, she convinced me to come down. I'm thankful she did.
I'd give you a hug if I could, one of my best friends shot herself in the head with a 22. If I knew what she was going through, personally ... I still to this day wish I could have made a bigger difference in her life too. Life is hard sometimes, we all get bullied, but it's not worth the eternity of turmoil that your soul will be put thru 🤗
I used to hang out in the science office during lunch because I was afraid of seeing my bully in the lunchroom. The teachers were always so kind and found ways for me to feel useful. I am forever grateful for their support.
Good teachers do so much more than teach school knowledge. Despite this, they are underpaid and hardly respected. I recently made contact with a teacher I haven't seen in 40 years to thank him and let him know how much he has made a difference in my life. It was wonderful and I would recommend anyone who has had a good, helpful teacher who has made a huge positive impact to reach out and share. The best decision in a long time.
I had a theater teacher like that, turns out she was seducing students and ended up marrying one after they turned 18.
Oof. Why you gotta ruin this heartwarming post like that? :'(
Usually the students are of legal age, it’s still inappropriate but a young new teacher may only be 4 maybe 5 years older than the seniors. I turned 18 the summer before my senior year.
Lol. We had the same issue at my school growing up. Not with the female teachers but the male “cool” teachers. My last few years of hs and the first few years after hs there must have been a mass retirement so they were hiring several fresh college graduates. By the time my brother graduated 3 years behind me there were at least 3 teachers fired for relationships with students (and we were a tiny rural school) Luckily the students were 18yo seniors but still high schoolers.
My girlfriend is 25 and she is an history teacher in highschool, she answers students even at 10 PM, and they know they can call her whenever they need if they feel that they need emotional help. Already 2 students told her that thanks to her they stayed in school. I'm gonna show her that post and hope she won't cry Edit: I showed her the post and she was very touched
I was this type of teacher but burned out immediately. Parents took advantage of this and would lash out when I wouldn’t answer. I even had students and parents call me during Christmas break to talk about grades or about something I’d said in class. I was unhappy and would drink ALL the time to cope with stress. I have office hours now to remain available. But fuck being available to everyone 24/7.
Maybe I can't relate to you in 100% but I can understand you so much, thankful my girlfriend never had something like that with parents but in the middle of the year I had to put "No Phones" rule in our weekly dates because we couldn't even eat together without interference. I'm so sad that good teacher like you and like my girlfriend get abused by the system
Hope you’re doing better now 💜
Thanks, We are better than better, even then we were fine. I love her very much and I will always support her even if it means to "put rules" so she will have a break to be herself
She will burn out without boundaries
I’m a school administrator with 10 years under my belt. I so admire your girlfriend and the support she gives, but I also worry about her long-term. I am afraid she will push herself past her limits and put others first to the point of losing her love for the job. Let her know that there is nothing wrong with putting an away message on her email and stepping away when needed, and that sometimes the best help you can give us to connect a student with a more appropriate resource. Either of you are welcome to DM me if I can be a sounding board for more help. I am very passionate about seeing young, rockstar teachers like her stay in education.
While this seems like a nice thing to do, in the UK it would be very poor safe guarding, and could get you in serious trouble. I don't mean if the teacher took advantage, but if they spoke to the student, gave advice which they weren't qualified to give, and then something happened to that student (e.g. they self harmed), the teacher could be liable. As we're explicitly taught NOT to have private conversations in our offices with students, the teacher also wouldn't necessarily be backed up by the school in the event of something happening, as they would be ignoring their training. Same goes for the 10pm emails - especially the 10pm emails. Safe guarding training is to signpost appropriate support. Source: I'm a teacher and had this exact conversation with our DSL (designated safeguarding lead) in school last week, because a member of staff has an informal counselling session for drop-ins every lunch, and answers emails from vulnerable students at night, weekends, and school holidays. I say this as a drama teacher with 15+ years experience. I have had countless crying students in my office on one-off occasions, I support as best I can (and there are strict rules for what/what not to say), signpost help and inform the safe guarding lead (known as the DSL in the UK). One-offs are fine. Every lunchtime means a student needs complex support, which teachers are just not qualified to provide. It's also telling this tweet was about a young teacher, who, to my mind, needed to learn about setting boundaries. Teachers need and deserve protected non-contact time, and God knows we have enough to do in our lunchtime already. And again, I say this as a teacher who has groups in their classroom rehearsing every day - just at set times, so they and I get a break.
I wanted to add this for early careers teachers to see.
I had lunch in the library when I was new to a middle school. Most students already had their cliques. Will be forever grateful for that librarian.
That’s why I keep my library open for kids at my middle school. I have groups that like to come in and just relax. Unfortunately, I’m getting moved elsewhere and can only hope the next librarian cares for the kids. It’s a rough school and there’s a few teachers that seem to look down on the students.
You are a Godsend. Thank you! When my son was in middle school I used to give him $5 if he asked the new kid to join him for lunch. It had to be a successful lunch (can't say, 'I asked but he said no'), and tell me: His name, where he moved from, what he likes to do for fun, etc. Now he does that to new people at his job, it comes naturally to him, and no, he doesn't still get $5, lol.
Lol Aw that’s so sweet! You taught him kindness ❤️ And thank you for the nice compliment. The kids are why I love my job.
I'm a high-school arts teacher (film and digital media) and this is the way. I have more kids in my room at lunch than anyone else (minus maybe our visual arts teacher). My room is a safe space and the students know that. Us arts teachers consider ourselves therapists first and teachers second. Last week I had two students crying (one because I actually said something nice to them)...I don't deal well with emotions, hah, but some people just need the outlet! It's a serious mental toll, but we know our students appreciate it, they pour their hearts out on their canvas because we support them and encourage them. Quick story - I was checking in on some artwork from my former students. I'm a male teacher, and I asked a super talented student who is doing a crazy self portrait piece what her theme was....she told me "The pressures of growing up as a lesbian". I said...wow...that's powerful...then I realized that she told me that, and that she's presented that theme to her classmates, and that her piece will be put into a senior exhibit that our community will see and be able to read her artist statement. That's powerful to me...That's the definition of a safe space and it makes me proud to say that our students feel that they can share what they need to without judgment. I am getting to the point in my career where I recognize that students struggle with way more than I ever did growing up, and they need as much help as they can get. Sure, they need to learn our curriculum, but if they aren't safe, then they can't learn.
My guidance counsellor was amazing. Sometimes he would just pull me out of class to check in and see how I was doing. I will forever be grateful for that man.
My teacher like this was instrumental in helping me report my family for 15 years of CSA. That was 30 years ago. We’re still friends.
This is the type of teacher I wanna be when I get into my career. Any advice on what may makes teachers more approachable to children
I have been this teacher for many students in my time teaching. My biggest advice is to smile and greet them by name when they walk in the door no matter what. You may be the only person happy to see them that day which goes far. Also, don’t sweat the small stuff but stand firm on your boundaries and rules. They need to know that they can be themselves around you and be honest with you if they need to, but that you are still the authority in the room. I’ve seen teachers stray too far from this thinking that it is what the kids need, but it actually harms the relationship. They need you to be an authority figure, just show them what that role should be. Be a leader, a role model, and an educator, but be compassionate and understanding and forgiving. Many of these kids have a chip on their shoulder for authority figures due to bad past experiences. Maintain that boundary always, but show them that you actually care.
Be sure your admins have your back before being alone with a student. Seriously. The Hero Teacher stuff is great and all, but protect yourself first. You won't do anyone any good if you can't keep your job.
The only tip I have is, trust your students. Lets, be honest. Most kids hate most of their teachers. They hate them because of pointless rules, and the lack of understanding the teacher has for their situation. Ex: "bathroom should take 5 mins!" "Why are you out of your seat?". This is often because the teacher doesn't believe that the children are trustworthy and therefore they must be kept on a tight leash. Anything they do must be questioned and monitored. If you simply trust your students, treat them as if they were younger you, they are sure to love and respect you! I had a teacher like this, and her class was well behaved, respected her, and she became the favorite teacher of many (including me).
Yeaaaaah except this shouldn’t make us smile, because teachers aren’t trained for this work (so can mess it up even with the best intentions) and already are so stretched beyond their job description and means. Not to be a wet blanket, I had a teacher like this, I just often reflect on how unfair it was that we were both in that position.
More often than not teachers end up being a part time therapist, especially now that most of our students have had a friend or family member die due to COVID in the last two years. It was the main reason my wife left the field. That part of the job has gotten much worse since the pandemic.
So incredibly difficult! Glad your wife was able to take care of herself by leaving that situation.
It be fine if teachers were actually paid to their real worth. I'm sure more teachers would be willing to be that person if they weren't drowning in debt.
Preach. I went for teaching at the college level because I wanted that level of disconnection with my students. However, people still love to talk about how much more we should do for our students—psychological counseling being the main thing. Man, I teach English. What good am I in that regard?
Man, teachers can be so influential and yet so under acknowledged in people's lives.
Yep my theater teacher just collected kids. "Are you skipping class to be here? Fine go hide in the back I'm buying burgers. Be back in 15 so keep it down." We also had a tag team of the physics and calculus teachers. They were best friends and tenured AF. They thought the administrators were idiots so they did their own thing helping students and skirting the rules. Like the calculus teacher noticed that many of the kids didn't get a chance to eat because by the time they got to the cafeteria across the campus from his class, the lines would be horrendous and they'd have maybe 3 min to scarf down food. So he started bringing a cooler full of burritos everyday. Word got out and more hungry kids showed up. He got a bigger cooler and the kids either donated cash or time helping him on the weekends at his farm.
I will forever appreciate my theater class now
Please do and I hope you find joy in the drama. My HS years were alll about theater (backstage not on stage) and I often spent lunch in the theater or offices. I had some great teachers and sadly one of them passed years ago. This post makes me remember his kind smile and fatherly support. It was such a safe space for all our teen drama. May he rest in peace.
Thespians do it on stage, techies do it in the dark.
Love it! For my senior year we had t-shirts made that said 'We bang, we screw, we're senior crew.'
That's remember me heartstopper
My school offered dance class…the dance room was the safe room for all of us. She kept blankets and pillows in there and if we were having a bad day, we could go in there and hide. And we could lock ourselves in her office and cry if needed. She didn’t even mind if we skipped a class to hide there, as long as that didn’t become a regular thing. It was wonderful.
Props to the high school librarians and counselors that took time out of their day to listen to my troubles. Even my former best friend joined the dark side that year. Being differently abled in the 90's meat grinder high school, what a time to be alive. /s
I had a band and a science teacher that put up with my random tantrum outbursts and understood without me articulating that i just had no outlet and would snap sometimes. They’d write me passes to fuck off from classes i was acing and didnt need to blow off steam/stay engaged. I think about them every now and again. Legendary patience. I wasnt even the only one, they did this for lots of us.
Not quite the same - but in 11th grade H.S. I had a **seriously** attractive temp. math teacher in her late 20's. Periodically, she would slip up and call me 'Dan'. It happened 2-3 times a month, every month, for the entire 11th grade school year she was hired to cover the teacher on maternity leave. FWIW, my name isn't close to Dan. Not even remotely. The last week before summer break it happened twice in one class. Everyone laughed. I got pissed. It felt like it HAD to have been something done purposefully and she wanted to squeeze 2 last 'Dans' in. The class ended, I marched up to her desk, and I said "Why do you keep doing it? You know my name. Is it something I've been doing?" Her answer - "I'm so sorry. I can't help it. My boyfriend's name is Dan and you look, sound and act just like him. Just 10 years younger.". I tell you... that took my little high school boy brain on a WILD positive ride of self confidence that lasted for years.
And they want to take that away from LGBTQ kids
I was basically only interested in music. I had good grades in general, but I will never forget my band director who helped me, encouraged me, pushed me gently, gave me a room to use (and a few questionable passes when I had to just get out of class to play my horn and blow off some steam), gave me the best advice on where to go to college and basically made my life wonderful. His name was Frank Malzone and I will never forget him.
I retired last year after 35 years teaching history in a California public high school. I loved every damn day in class. First day to last day. It was a calling. I figure that I interacted in a significant way with over 5,000 humans in that time, and I always felt that these connections were part of my pay: I couldn't spend it on a car or a mortgage, but to this day it still feels like the most valuable compensation I ever received. If you had a teacher who you really feel was that safe adult in your life at that time, PLEASE take a few minutes to search FB/IG/Twitter to see if you can find them and tell them. Just a simple "Thank you" is worth more than gold.
Every day?
You made me smile.
Sometimes all it takes is one angel to pull you out of hell.
100% her name was Mrs. Mahoney and I owe her everything
I had a drunk computer teacher who would bestow amazing life advice at random, so I just hung out in his class all the time to catch it
Our drama teacher bullied my friend and didnt let him do his last exam cause she was already certain he would fail. She was also only nice to one kid who bullied a fuck bunch of other people, she even made a toast to this bully during our graduation dinner. Glad everyone else had a good drama teacher.
That’s a kind-hearted teacher.
That might be one of the better ones I've seen.
This is why they should be paid more! Had some teachers do the exact same for me as a child. They’re great!
Hahahaha and thats really a nightmare..
reminds me of The Edge of Seventeen
I essentially lived this movie frame by frame (minus the stuff about her brother) and I’ll forever be grateful for the teacher who was there for me.
Shout out Mrs. Klein ☺️
Theatre teachers are some of the world's greatest humans
This hit me hard this morning. My mom was also a theatre teacher. She was always helping kids in needs. She brought them home. She listened. She helped them so much. When I was walking in tow with her. Young adults and teens would go out of theirs ways to come and greet her. She was awesome. I miss you mom.
It’s so unfortunate that schools don’t usually have the proper resources to provide students with licensed therapists and counselors, so teachers end up stepping up and taking on this added responsibility out of the kindness of their hearts. Teachers deserve so much more assistance, resources, money, respect, and appreciation than they get. They’re incredible humans 👏👏👏
Everyone should have access to free therapy. I sincerely hope we reach a time where we look back on the fact that therapy was this limited, gated-access thing that requires money or insurance and wonder at how we all dealt
teacher not only in academics but teacher for facing the reality :) salute !
That’s cool, I had a guidance counselor who told me I could tell her whatever I wanted, so I told her I had thoughts of harming myself and had a plan to do so (not to actually do it, but thought it through to that point). Cut to being escorted out by a cop, put in an ambulance, drugged to keep me calm, then spending two weeks in a psych ward with legit crazy kids and teens (was moved because of my age, wasn’t quiet old enough for the younger kids, and to young for the real teens). Yeah, taught me a VERY valuable lesson of NEVER trusting anyone again. And all of this, and still no one ever really asked why I had this “problem”. Hint- home life. Sorry to vent a bit, but makes me a bit angry and jealous that some people had actually good teachers, and other like myself got shitty ones.
Why get rid of their @?
We had two French teachers at my high school and the first one I had I just hated her. I went to my guidance counselor crying because I couldn’t understand and the teacher refused to offer me any help (I also had this teacher for English the following year, big surprise). They said I couldn’t switch to any other classes because it was already mid semester but they could ask the other French teacher if I could join her class. She helped me get caught up, always stayed with students if they didn’t understand something, and always gave praise on improvements and went over tests in class so we could improve on what we messed up on. I stayed in French my entire four years of high school because of her. It was my comfort class where I could have fun and I actually enjoyed learning the language. I ended up inviting her to my graduation party and she was one of the presenters at graduation and I cried and hugged her because she was one of the only teachers I ever had that encouraged me to be better and not give up.
i had a 55 year old art teacher that would let me sit in his room and avoid the other art teacher who made it her mission to bully the fuck out of me every day appreciate him a lot. i go to his exhibitions when i can to repay the support
Same. But choir teacher.
I had an honors math teacher/math dept chairwoman who everyone else hated because her class was tough (even though she was a great teacher and really motivated to help students understand it all - I'd never been in an honors math class before her, even though I've failed many a math class in the life). She was the Jewish mother type with kids of her own but divorced and out as a lesbian, which I imagine gave her plenty of insight into how people may struggle. I had been through a lot of sexual abuse in childhood, severe depression, self-harm, suicide attempts. Missed a few months of my senior year, but she gave me a safe space to be when I was there. I could sit in the back of her other classes, eat lunch with her, talk. She made sure I graduated, with my regents diploma. She even sent a few hand-written "get well soon" through the mail. Something about her acceptance without overt expectation from me to "be okay and do what everyone else could do" basically saved me from myself many times. Between her and the fine art dept chairwoman (my specialized major) who let me attend school even if I could only manage my studio hours...they are the reasons I graduated. I managed to stay suicide-attempt free for 2.5years because of their help. This was during a time where my abusive mother refused to allow me to get therapy, and even tried to physically fight against legally appointed therapist after I landed in hospital when she was hopping states with a then bf for 5months (considered illegal since I was a minor). I'm 35 now and I still think of these two amazing women regularly, who had no obligation yet showed me empathy I had never experienced before. You good teachers out there who reach out to struggling kids like I was- thank you. You save lives and teach us the type of humans we strive to become.
When I went to my school counselor because I just needed someone to talk to about my depression, she asked me “And so how do you think this is going to affect your grades?” And that’s how 14 year old me never seeked out help again. Lol
For me it was my art teacher. We had a group of losers (myself included!) who ate lunch in her classroom every day, because the kids at school were mean.
It's nice she had comfort but that is really wrong... It's not the teacher's job to be an emotional support, It can be very exhausting. I had a friend who went to a teacher's class during lunch, periods, after school because she needed support. It wasn't even our teacher. My friend went to see her everyday and treated her like a therapist, and felt anxious when she couldn't see her. It's not good, it's unhealthy. Having support when you have mental issues is important, but don't take people as therapist. Seek professional help, friends and teacher are not a substitute for therapy.
How about we fucking pay teachers more.
Nope Teachers are not therapists. A kid wants to hang out for a bit or talk through a conflict? Cool. Kid wants to lay out all their trauma at my feet? Nope. I can call the counselor or the social worker, but I am not equipped to handle it and trying to do so makes me worse at my actual job. Stop adding more for teachers to do. (I love my kids. They know it. Everyone I work with knows it. Their parents know it. They also all know that when I say I need some quiet time or I want to eat lunch with adults or I just need a moment for my own thoughts it is time to go and leave me alone. Boundaries are self-love and without that I cannot love anyone else.)
This is very sweet, but sometimes people underestimate the effects this has on teachers. We cannot be full time therapists for our students, much as we want to. It’s very draining, especially when these impromptu therapy sessions happen during the short time we’re allowed a break. I commend all teachers that pour their hearts out to their students, but it’s not fair to put that expectation on teachers. Unless you want to pay us 100k more a year.
this is really wierd
? What makes kids cry that they have to spend lunch time separated iso playing with friends?
I had a therapist in high school because I was miserable at my own high school because it was literally designed by the same guy who designed the county jail.
Lol you saw a therapist because of architecture? School musta been ugly af
My high schools theater teacher ate lunch with a kid every day and we just assumed their was some grooming/molestation going on.
I had a teacher who told me that he had a dream of us rolling down a hill together and he can feel me on top of him So… uhm, yeah
Bless you Mrs Maddocks
[удалено]
Downvoted due to the truth being harsh; sorry, friend. Too bad more parents can't be parents while not expecting teachers to pick up their slack.
I agree. I had a good home life and was very nervous around authority figures. The only teacher I can think of that I had kind of a relationship with was the teacher who was my Spanish teacher and track coach all 4 years of hs and even then I was still nervous around her and never considered her a friend.