Teachers driven to nervous breakdowns and the like

[MaddAdam]

We've all seen it happen. Some of us have probably contributed to the crack up.

Usually art and/or music teachers. But they are all vulnerable to a concerted campaign.

Tell your stories.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

About year 6, sub teacher, a real old hag, we were really pissing her off. From memory, there were issues going on between mum and dad at home (impending break up which didn't end up happening) so I wasn't in the taking shit from people kind of mood. Anyway she had just about had enough of me clicking my pen, but she had been making the classes day worse than it already was with her attitude (like I could talk right), so by this point I was aiming to piss her off.

She tells me "You click that pen one more time and I'll snap it", I look her in the eye, half-smile, and click that bitch, and boy did she snap it. Went on some rant about how her sister died, and how everyone else is better off than her, ended in tears in front of the whole class...

Thinking back now, the adolescent me was a real up-himself prick...

 

[MaddAdam]

About year 6, sub teacher, a real old hag, we were really pissing her off. From memory, there were issues going on between mum and dad at home (impending break up which didn't end up happening) so I wasn't in the taking shit from people kind of mood. Anyway she had just about had enough of me clicking my pen, but she had been making the classes day worse than it already was with her attitude (like I could talk right), so by this point I was aiming to piss her off.

She tells me "You click that pen one more time and I'll snap it", I look her in the eye, half-smile, and click that bitch, and boy did she snap it. Went on some rant about how her sister died, and how everyone else is better off than her, ended in tears in front of the whole class...

Thinking back now, the adolescent me was a real up-himself prick...

Great post. It is usually the little things that work best - clicking pens. I am old enough to have been in school when runners with velcro straps rather than laces were considered cool. We drove one teacher to a spectacular meltdown with a co-ordinated ripping of the velcro straps campaign.

 

[Plugger35]

We made a substitute teacher quit teaching or so we were told.

She was only fairly young and naive, straight out of teachers college and was filling in for a week for our Year 10 science teacher who was a strict taskmaster so while the old cat was away us mice took the opportunity to play. Being a newbie substitute teacher we could smell blood in the water and being the little pricks we were back then we went in for the kill.

We put obvious fake names down on the roll she sent around on the first day which she thought were real and kept reading them out each morning wondering why they weren't there lol and we basically just ran riot in class as she had no idea how to discipline us. All of us bad boys were sitting in the back few rows on either sides of the class and every time she'd turn around to write on the blackboard we'd start pelting each other with rolled up bits of paper, pens, pencil cases, books, files, schoolbags, chairs etc. She'd just turn around and say "um boys can you please stop doing that?" which of course didn't stop us. We'd just keep pushing it more and more to see what else we could get away with like throwing rolled up bits of paper and pens at the blackboard while she was writing on it which we thought was hilarious.

Anyway after a few days she didn't come back and one of our other teachers had to take over and told us she was in tears in the staff room because she couldn't control us and she was going to quit teaching. Pretty horrible looking back on it now but at the time we thought it was a victory.

 

[PP34]

Grade two with a younger female teacher (pretty new to the school and had a great set apparently). Not a very interesting one but two guys in my class just stood up the whole time and she eventually just lost it (they were also the typical class clowns). Went outside, was in tears and didn't comeback for a good half hour. Apparently she went off to a really scummy high school after. I'm really struggling to understand how she would have dealt with the students there who have been notorious for violence, great amounts of disrespect and so on.

In year seven a mate and I pushed our art teacher to tears. She was very temperamental in that year, at least towards us she was. Seeing as it was the first year for both our class and herself it made for an interesting time. She clearly hadn't figured out how to deal with the kids at my school yet and we all took advantage. Nothing bad, just the usual pisstaking behaviour. Dumb comments when watching movies/art videos, making clay penises, throwing stuff around the room, painting on each other etc. This one day in about November of that year she just lost it. She gave us all a good bake in class as we were just being very noisy. Off to the lecture theatre we went to watch a video, where we came upon closed door. My mate and I were well ahead of the teacher so we walked in with a sense of urgency. She caught up, completely cracked it, abused us and sent us off to some other teacher's room. Apparently we needed to wait and open the door for her. We copped a bake from him with the year twelves of the time looking at us with amused looks. The rest of the class entered the lecture theatre where apparently the noise and mucking around continued. She went on a massive rant about the class on the stage, threw in the odd swear word, talked about how tough the class had made it for her this year and began crying. We all thought she was insane because the stuff we did was light in comparison to what other classes did to annoy their teachers.

Somehow I and a few others ended up as her favourite students when we continued with art for the next few years, and to this day she still gets on with us.

The thing is with teachers is that they have their own lives. Dickheads at school forget this in their early years I think, and we all decide to make their lives hell instead. They have loved ones die, children they fight with at home and so on.

There are however some teachers who you can never quite understand. You hear about their personal lives, their interests etc, and yet no matter how hard you try or how much you grow up, they're still complete arseholes to you. I guess they just like acting like they're important.

 

[MaddAdam]

Pretty horrible looking back on it now but at the time we thought it was a victory.

The main reason I would never encourage anyone to go into teaching is because I remember what I was like as a kid.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

We made a substitute teacher quit teaching or so we were told.

She was only fairly young and naive, straight out of teachers college and was filling in for a week for our Year 10 science teacher who was a strict taskmaster so while the old cat was away us mice took the opportunity to play. Being a newbie substitute teacher we could smell blood in the water and being the little pricks we were back then we went in for the kill.

We put obvious fake names down on the roll she sent around on the first day which she thought were real and kept reading them out each morning wondering why they weren't there lol and we basically just ran riot in class as she had no idea how to discipline us. All of us bad boys were sitting in the back few rows on either sides of the class and every time she'd turn around to write on the blackboard we'd start pelting each other with rolled up bits of paper, pens, pencil cases, books, files, schoolbags, chairs etc. She'd just turn around and say "um boys can you please stop doing that?" which of course didn't stop us. We'd just keep pushing it more and more to see what else we could get away with like throwing rolled up bits of paper and pens at the blackboard while she was writing on it which we thought was hilarious.

Anyway after a few days she didn't come back and one of our other teachers had to take over and told us she was in tears in the staff room because she couldn't control us and she was going to quit teaching. Pretty horrible looking back on it now but at the time we thought it was a victory.

We called this 'tomohawking', one day in year 7-8, the teacher took us to the library to look for resources for a project or something along those lines, she had to leave us for a minute or two, we turned the tables on there sides to use as cover, opened up buckets and buckets of textas and just pelted each other with them, the memories...

 

[Bluelegs]

German teacher. She wasn't particularly nice or mean either way but she had a reputation for tears if you pushed her far enough. Everyone tried to do it as we were all 13/14 at the time and little shits to say the least. I remember being a part of making her cry on one occasion. In hindsight my it's a regretful story but it's stupid to hold a grudge against your 14 year-old self.

On another more amusing occasion my friend made her go absolutely ballistic. No tears but a very red face. I wasn't participating this time but my mate had been shuffling her things around on her desk when she wasn't looking. Next class right across the hall she comes in halfway through and drags ME out to explain myself for the actions my friend had done. I tried to explain to her that I had nothing to do with it while not ratting out my mate. She was asking me where her stuff was (which I knew from watching my mate **** with her things) and eventually I tried to hint at where it could be (it was just a few crucial papers hidden within one of her other folders) without outright admitting I knew where it was. In the end she tried to give me some kind of 'I told you so' look and tell me off for something I hadn't done while I was just asking if I could go back to class.

 

[PP34]

The main reason I would never encourage anyone to go into teaching is because I remember what I was like as a kid.

I wouldn't be able to restrain myself, especially if it was some shithead senior high school kid.

 

[Bluelegs]

We made a substitute teacher quit teaching or so we were told.

She was only fairly young and naive, straight out of teachers college and was filling in for a week for our Year 10 science teacher who was a strict taskmaster so while the old cat was away us mice took the opportunity to play. Being a newbie substitute teacher we could smell blood in the water and being the little pricks we were back then we went in for the kill.

We put obvious fake names down on the roll she sent around on the first day which she thought were real and kept reading them out each morning wondering why they weren't there lol and we basically just ran riot in class as she had no idea how to discipline us. All of us bad boys were sitting in the back few rows on either sides of the class and every time she'd turn around to write on the blackboard we'd start pelting each other with rolled up bits of paper, pens, pencil cases, books, files, schoolbags, chairs etc. She'd just turn around and say "um boys can you please stop doing that?" which of course didn't stop us. We'd just keep pushing it more and more to see what else we could get away with like throwing rolled up bits of paper and pens at the blackboard while she was writing on it which we thought was hilarious.

Anyway after a few days she didn't come back and one of our other teachers had to take over and told us she was in tears in the staff room because she couldn't control us and she was going to quit teaching. Pretty horrible looking back on it now but at the time we thought it was a victory.

Teachers get a trial by fire and if they can't handle it early then they're not cut out for the job. It's definitely the profession that I think should be more regulated and be far higher paid.

 

[MaddAdam]

It is one of the Law of the Universe that for every teacher who is made to cry (usually vulnerable young female teachers) a psychotic and terrifying male Year Co-ordinator or the like is born.

 

[Bluelegs]

The main reason I would never encourage anyone to go into teaching is because I remember what I was like as a kid.

The worst thing must be seeing all these absolutely horrible kids and not being able to do shit because every parent thinks they're raising a demi-god.

 

[PP34]

Teachers get a trial by fire and if they can't handle it early then they're not cut out for the job. It's definitely the profession that I think should be more regulated and be far higher paid.

Some politician made a comment today, arguing that corporal punishment should return. While I don't agree with him entirely, if some of the parents of the kids saw their behaviour I think their Helen Lovejoy outrage would die down a fair bit. Teachers don't seem to have a leg to stand on while parents can talk their way out of their kids rubbish. I think it's a pretty thankless job.

There are some kids who seriously need a kick up the arse. They can't really deal with them verbally and they either end up dropping out (not all that bad I guess if they do something like a trade) or staying right through, shitting people right through year 12.

My school's tame too. I've heard far worse stories from schools nearby.

 

[Leper]

It is one of the Law of the Universe that for every teacher who is made to cry (usually vulnerable young female teachers) a psychotic and terrifying male Year Co-ordinator or the like is born.

Yep, this.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

After reading this thread, I'm now not sure whether to continue on with my teaching degree...

 

[Plugger35]

The main reason I would never encourage anyone to go into teaching is because I remember what I was like as a kid.

Yeah especially when you get to high school and you're at that age where you're old enough to cause trouble and be nasty rebellious little shits but not mature enough to care about other people's feelings and teachers weren't seen as real people, they were the enemy. Teachers had to know how to discipline you and keep you in line or you'd run riot.

Teachers get a trial by fire and if they can't handle it early then they're not cut out for the job. It's definitely the profession that I think should be more regulated and be far higher paid.

Yeah that's the way we saw it, we were just giving her an initiation to high school teaching but she wasn't strict enough or tough enough to handle us, she probably would've been better off teaching primary school.

 

[MaddAdam]

After reading this thread, I'm now not sure whether to continue on with my teaching degree...

There seems to be a lot of teachers on BigFooty.

Maybe you could ask Macca18 for advice?

You see it was Macca's birthday a few years ago and he came up to Melbourne to see North v Essendon on the big day. He was convinced his boys were going to give him a good present. Alas it was not to be. Then he was so perturbed by onfield events he was outside the ground having a dhurry when he saw some of his students and had to quickly get rid of the cancer stick.

Such are the perils of the teacher's life.

 

[MaddAdam]

Yep, this.

Usually the psycho male Year Co-Ordinator is sent to restore order once the broken teacher flees the scene.

 

[Plugger35]

Shell is a teacher too, would be interesting to hear her side of the story, I doubt she'd be too impressed with some of our antics. .

Usually the psycho male Year Co-Ordinator is sent to restore order once the broken teacher flees the scene.

Like sending in the riot police to break up an unruly crowd.

 

[MaddAdam]

Its funny, I can't actually remember learning anything in Year 7 or 8, any moment where I was like "Wow, that's amazing" or any skill or ability I took into later life.

But I can distinctly recall, right down to the weather and the smell of the classroom, numerous occasions of personal and class wide ill discipline and the resulting retribution.

 

[Hank Scorpion]

Never anything too serious.

Year six we had a sub that went into a spontaneous rant about poverty and how privileged we were in comparison.

Year 8 drama we had a female Asian sub for drama. The room had covered up the windows, so it relied on artificial light. A few boys kept turning off the lights and doing all sorts of antics (play fighting, hid her handbag). She was visibly pissed.

Year 11 Physics I'm convinced the teacher was in tears on at least one occasion. She had several lessons with a rant dedicated to the class or a particular group of students over misbehaviour, laziness etc.. There were a few occasions where she took the rest of the week off following what I suspected to be a breakdown.


Anyone have a serious confrontation with a male teacher? Almost every verbal tirade I can remember came out of a female teacher's mouth.

 

[Plugger35]

Most of our male teachers were pretty strict and laid down the law early so you couldn't muck around much. With female teachers you could get away with more, especially younger less experienced ones. Substitute teachers probably copped it the worst though as they were only there for a short while so if you played up there were less ramifications as they didn't know anyone and weren't there long enough to care.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Fake names. Or switching names with your mates. Vintage material.

Really though, I always used to love winding teachers up. Mostly because the ones I had were total egotistical pricks, intent on victimising the kids who needed help most, and who fawned and buffered up those who were always going to make it. Used to love proving them wrong, getting them upset, and then forcing them to admit I'd written a good assignment.

I was never harsh or evil or brought up non-school stuff, never had a go, never was actually nasty, but I just made their life a bit tough. No regrets.

 

[Silent Alarm]

This story is like when you're really pissed and something amazing happens and everyone else was too drunk to remember, but you know it happened.

The sun was out, the siren had gone. It was term four and the year was close to over. Everyone was happy, optimism was in abounds, and everything seemed to be happening lately – fights, hook ups, stories, all sorts. Anyway, me and my best mate and other good form friend at the time are lagging behind a bit, knowing we can rock up ten minutes late and have no issue, so we're talking to some other people, gossiping, and we see this circle bubbling away.

Of course, if you've spent time in any school, you'll know circle means crowd. And crowd means fight. Naturally, being about 14, we walk faster to go over...

From the big dumb yellow Fox cap of this one guy, to the red, yellow, and blue quartered Chicken Treat polo of the other, we knew these guys. One had dropped out to work full time at Chicken Treat and the other was so dumb, even dropping out to work at Chicken Treat was a move too smart for him to make. They had history, it's kicking off, it's boiled over, and it's all happening. They're jumping punching, they're proper punching, and the crowd is roaring.

Me and my mates are in stitches. There's not much more exciting and funnier than a high school punch up. And maybe it was the adrenaline or maybe it was a head tilt, or maybe it was because I could always find the unfancied option in my footy and soccer days, but in my peripheral I see this teacher. He's just jumped out of the demountable classrooms. Like this is a five, six metre drop from window to grass. And he's done it like James Bond – one arm on the awning, sideways swinging his leg out and army rolling onto the ground. It was amazing. This old ex-pat pom English teacher, in his Tottenham Hotspur polo and 65-years, is jumping out of a window.

Not only that, but he runs down towards this fight. And he's running, pens flying out of his polo pocket, full on towards this fight. The circle split or he just ran through it like Nat Fyfe, I can't remember, but within six seconds he'd gone from window to the inner sanctum. And in another six seconds he had one of these punks in each fist – holding them at bay by the collar, each kid swinging at him. This teacher cracks it, goes mental, and knocks them almost together and in the deftest one-two I've ever seen, gives them each some chin-music – one, two, bam, they're both just shocked and these kids have stopped fighting.

Sir had not only broken up a punch up, but gotten into one too.

He just cracked. He saw his chance. No one around. He must've thought it was the Brixton Riots. But he just cracked.

We ran to class and told everyone, like when you all spill a story over the top of each other and even the weird kids are asking "okay so who was in the fight?" as the class gathers around, teacher redundant but probably also hearing. No one ever believed us, but this teacher cracked and in the coolest way possible.

 

[MaddAdam]

The jumping out the window bit makes that one.