Teachers (was -Re: Irrational childhood fears)

[Iggy McSnurd]

> Paula now:
*snip*
> IMHO the kids come out pretty unscathed--the laws are by and large on
their side.
*snip*

Iggy here:

I don't know if I'd say that.  In high school, I was stuck with one
particular teacher for four whole semesters, and she tormented me during her
classes worse than most of the kids in school.  She also supported it when
other kids poked fun at me in classes, and was both directly and indirectly
the cause of a lot of my social self confidence problems as a teenager.  (I
was pretty confident in a number of my classes like English, speech, choir,
and drama, however... places where I could hide behind characters or other
modes of expression...)

A few examples of what she did:

1 - My initials are "R.M.", and she once commented in a class that it was
unfortunate that my initials weren't "B.M." so they could refer to me as
"Bowel Movement."  One of the kids piped up that they could always call me
"Rectal Movement."  She gave him an extra credit point for hit quick wit.

2 - I could say something in class and would get docked points for "talking
out of turn" or "talking up in class"... yet any other student could say the
same thing and under the same circumstances, and would get bonus points for
being clever or having an innovative view on things.  Even a few of the kids
I knew in school commented to me that it was unfair.

3 - If I told a story of something that had happened to me in my life as it
related to the current discussion, she would dock me points for telling
"tall tales" (unless it was something embarrassing to me..and then she'd
just laugh and not give me the bonus point she'd give someone else.)  This
was coming from a woman who looked like Gene Simmons (from KISS) in drag,
and claimed that weight lifters on the beach were always hitting on her,
that she had dated each of the Beatles, that she got a ride to a Rolling
Stones concert in the limo of the band itself when her car broke down on the
way, that she was the first female drag race driver, that she was the first
female to teach in an all male prison, and that she turned down a wedding
proposal from a mega-millionaire because she wanted to keep teaching.


I found out years later from one of my other history teachers that the
entire Social Studies department at the school eventually banned together
and not only got her fired, but got her teaching credentials revoked and had
her banned from ever teaching in the county again.  They did this because of
not only how she treated some of the students, but how she often treated a
number of her co-workers as well.


Iggy McSnurd