Looking Back At Teachers: Good And Bad

[Angel of Death]

Looking back at teachers: good and bad

by Stacey Henson | The Saginaw News

Monday April 28, 2008, 6:09 AM

As the Saginaw Board of Education suspended Houghton fourth-grade teacher Terri Dinsmore this month, my mind went back to the teachers who scared, yelled and threw things at my class.

In talking with friends, we all had similar experiences with rogue teachers.

In my first grade at Lillian Fletcher Elementary, we had two teachers on opposite sides of that learning curve: Ms. Sickle, the music teacher; and Mrs. Slider, the art teacher.

Mrs. Slider was a petite woman who all the students loved. She had us create wonderful projects and her artsy gentleness drew us to her. Ms. Sickle was mean, imposing with her blonde/brown hair all akimbo. Flat-out mean.

And when a first-grader remembers that all these decades later, well, you know what an impression she made.

While Mrs. Slider was our happy outlet for the week; our time spent with Ms. Sickle was awful. And with their names so similar, first-graders were given to confusing the two in a moment of terror. We only saw each one hour per week. I remember Ms. Sickle screeching at some poor classmate "I'm not Mrs. Slider!"

Even then, I thought, "you should want to be. She's so much nicer."

Ms. Sickle routinely screamed at us, telling the entire class we weren't "singing." In a moment of bravery, I said, "But I was."

She informed me I was talking the words to the song. It's difficult to believe any of us have a love for music.

She moved on a couple years later.

She wasn't the only teacher who gets points for rudeness and ineptitude. I had one science teacher who fell asleep consistently in class. It took many years and a new superintendent before he got the boot.

In middle school band, the teacher threw batons, chalk, erasers, drumsticks and an occasional trash can across the room to emphasize his frustration at what we were doing wrong.

In college, the standard line to belittle students -- done in many departments -- is the constant barrage of "You're the stupidest class to ever come through these halls."

The difference between what the Houghton teacher did and what these teachers did is small, but important: According to personnel reports, she swore at and threatened her students. These aren't college students, they are fourth-graders and middle school students.

Everyone knows that each part of society has the discontents who can't manage their anger. But when a teacher is the one threatening and swearing at a student, it leaves red welts on pupils' psyches.

Good teachers make the difference in whom succeeds in school just as bad teachers do. I just counted three teachers; only one I know for sure got canned for his inaction.

School boards have to protect students. The charge that members have is to oversee what students are learning and how. School boards have to be bold and take charge.

Their actions can make a difference between children loving school and children determined to get the heck out of Dodge at the first sign of trouble.

[tanuki1985]

As a substitute teacher right now, I certainly see bad and good school employees.

I subbed for a special education preschool class once. The kids were all three and four-year-olds with all kinds of disorders: autism, Down's Syndrome, you name it. The paraprofessional who I worked with downright insulted these kids. She asked one autistic kid what was wrong with him when he couldn't sit still during story time. She asked one kid what was wrong with him because he was still behind in talking and couldn't really talk yet. I thought, duh, you know what's wrong with them. They're in this class because there IS something wrong with them, and it's our job to assist them. I would never approach someone with Down's Syndrome and ask, "what is wrong with you?" Talk about being rude.

I had an Economics teacher in 9th grade who was a downright psychopath. We had a kid with Tourette's Syndrome in our class, and the teacher literally screamed and threw chairs and desks around the classroom once when this kid made barely audible noises to himself. I was sitting two seats away from him and could barely hear him, but apparently this teacher thought it was bad enough to put our lives in danger and throw things around the classroom.

My middle school band teacher talked to us like shit stains and banged on his chalkboard to get our attention. We were so happy when it shattered one day.

My 5th grade teacher and elementary school computers and gym teachers would resort to insulting students. If someone was having a hard time in class or was upset because they were being teased by other kids, they'd literally fling insults. I'm not kidding, they'd call us inexcusable words like "dumb." It's pretty hard to care about school when your own teacher has called you a dummy.

[sass_in_the_pants]

Ah, Mrs. Gromblewski, where are you now?

Everyone thought she was SUPER mean. She wasn't. She just didn't fuck around. Ever. Eighth grade science. Only now as an adult can I truly appreciate her rudeness.

But I betchya I know the periodic table still...