My 7 year old son was shot down by his 1st grade teacher
The american public education system in a nutshell tho
My third grade teacher actually had a conversation with my mom that I was reading to well and told her to stop having me read at home
My first grade teacher said that it was problematic that I was reading ahead of the rest of the kids in my grade and asked my parents to stop letting me read Harry Potter.
My fourth grade teacher thought it was wrong for my dad to be teaching me complex math because it fascinated me.
My elementary school music teacher hated the way my piano teacher taught me, and how I was more advanced than many of her students, and so told me, in front of my peers and my mother, that I was not good enough to participate in the state solo festival. She would not give me the form. We had to procure it from the district instead. She also hated how I excelled at reading and playing music for the recorder, and so she refused to give me my “belts” (colored beads to signify our level) and humiliated me in front of the class repeatedly.
My eighth grade algebra teacher used to fail me on take home tests because I didn’t solve problems exactly the way she showed us in class; I used methods that we had learned for other types of problems that also applied to these. She took points off my tests because I didn’t bring a calculator even though I got 100% without it, because I was able to do it by hand. I had to call my father, who is an engineer, down to the school to shout her down and give me back my A in the class.
My 10th grade Spanish teacher yelled at me in front of the class numerous times because she didn’t like the way I took notes; she thought that since I didn’t write every word off the slide, I wasn’t getting it all down. I had to explain to her that people who have taken advanced courses, like AP or IB classes, know that in a fast-paced learning environment you need to take quick shorthand notes that contain the necessary information rather than wasting time writing every word. She almost gave me detention.
My 11th grade English teacher gave me a poor mark on my first short essay because she believed that I was looking up unnecessarily complex words in a thesaurus to try and get better marks. The phrases in question: “laced with expletives” and “bombarded”. She wouldn’t hear any defense from me.
My 11th grade history teacher failed me on an essay about the 1950s because I misread the prompt. Except the prompt wasn’t words; it was a political cartoon. One of the figures was clearly president Eisenhower, but the other I couldn’t place. My teacher would not tell us who it was. I labelled him as the governor of Little Rock Arkansas during the integration period, and wrote an essay about that subject. My teacher said that no, it was Joseph McCarthy, and that there was a small picture of the man in our textbook and therefore I should have recognized him instantly. Half the class, apparently, did not.
The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win.
“The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win."
Fun story time. I loved to read. So much so, I was reading chapter books in kindergarden. I broke the record for reading points in elementary school. They actually had to start making up prizes for me. No one in the history of the school had ever read so many books in a year. Basically, my class liked me because I won those suckers pizza parties in my spare time.
In second grade, I had a teacher named Ms. Mobley who believed all children should be average. She flat out told my father that all children should make C’s, and should never strive for more than that.
Not only was she insane, she also would routinely spell things wrong for us to copy for our spelling tests. Later, when we spelled those words wrong on the test, she would mark us off. Yes, our own teacher was sabotaging us.
I should have been tested for gifted classes, but I was not. Why? Ms. Mobley didn’t believe in “gifted” children.
This teacher had tenure and could not be fired.
Never forget.
"The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win."
George Orwell couldn’t invent this crap
it’s twisted stuffMy math teacher last year would tell us that “we all need to get A’s and none of her students had ever failed. I passed that class with a D. She would give us quizzes on stuff we hadn’t learned yet and then it counted for 50% of our grades. She also humiliated the students who didn’t get 100% on her quizzes every time we took one. Lastly she wrote notes and then erased them 3 seconds later and then yelled when you didn’t get them all down. The North American educations system is such a joke.
My 8th grade French teacher told us if we weren’t finished by the period was over we had detention. Then she proceeded to talk through the whole period, then when she called me out for writing my essay while she was talking I had to calmly explain I didn’t want detention. My French work was done and all the requirements were met and I made it longer than the minimum, but she gave me detention anyway. I got in trouble for doing my French work properly.
I typed up a huge long rant about the most awful foods class teacher I’ve ever had, but it must have gotten eaten by tumblr or something.
My mother taught my brother and I to read by the time we were three. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher didn’t believe that I was actually reading the books because by then I could read inside my head. When I was in grade two, my teacher would confiscate my books for reading in class. That same year, I wasn’t allowed to get the higher level books from the library, as grade three and under aren’t allowed outside of the kids books section. In grade five, I got in trouble for reading “Animal Farm”, “Watership Down” and “The Hobbit” because I shouldn’t be reading those until later. I’ve read at a college level since grade seven, my vocabulary surpasses most of my class’s, and people call me stupid because I can’t do mental multiplication for the seventh and eighth times tables. It’s not just the American education system, it’s the Canadian as well.
Wow….anyone else getting Harrison Bergeron feeling with some of these?
In second grade, I had trouble with math. My reading, however, was at a 6th grade level. They sent me into testing and insisted that I had some form of ADHD or autism without sending me to a doctor. They believe something was wrong with me because I was shy around my math tutor. My teacher refused to let me eat or let me go to recess until I finished my math problems. I occasionally went entire days without eating or going outside. Kids had to sneak me food when she wasn’t looking. The other kids got to do an art project (making puppets) while I was stuck working on more math problems. I loved art and I really wanted to make a puppet, too. So I made one while she wasn’t looking. She found out, snatched the puppet from my hand, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it in the trash. I bawled my eyes out for the rest of the day and she just continued to yell at me. She isolated me from the rest of the class because she thought I was “distracting” to the other kids. The next year, I was put into autism classes with no diagnosis. This resulted in bullying and embarrassment. My mother eventually had no choice but to hold me back because of all of this. Going into my senior year, I still get teased about this sometimes.
One time in the fifth grade, I had a teacher tell us to write a one page story on lined paper about “What we would do with a million dollars.” I wrote both a creative story and an essay on 3 sheets.
It was a very descriptive teen-drama like story, I didn’t think anything of it I felt that I had surpassed the expectations and wrote a little something extra for fun. Even managing to be one of the few people to turn it in first.
I was pulled aside the next day by two teachers, who berated me for 15 minutes. Ripped my paper up in to three separate pieces, and told me that “it wasn’t a creative writing essay, so thats unacceptable. I’m failing you on this.” She gave me a zero, I was humiliated. 5th grade people.
In the 7th grade, I had a math teacher who never paid much attention to me. My writing and reading scores were excelent but I was failing math. I would turn work in all the time finished, but completely inncorrect.
She would count these papers as NOT TURNED IN.
So my mom could see on my reports that they were unfinished; I almost got in big trouble except my idiot math teacher handed those assignments back IN TO ME with 0’s.
She denied everything until my parents came in and confronterd her with the assignments. Should have seen the color on her face.
"The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win."
This post back with new stories… So frustrating. I once impressed the school office staff by using the word sibling when I was 8. Not really that impressive of a word, especially considering I was there to test for the gifted program. While homeschooling for 8th grade, I took band with the school. The counselor pulled me into his office and tried to convince me I wasn’t really happy studying at home, and my life would be better if I attended middle school.
"The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win."
