Teachers are only human, even though we sometimes ask them to be more than that. And like all humans, they have their breaking points.
This piece is based on an AskReddit thread. Link on the last page.
1. We had a physical education teacher who sweat profusely whenever sexual subjects were raised. He ended up having to be a substitute teacher for one of our sex-ed lessons.
We were very aware of his discomfort discussing the subject and asked him lots of in depth questions, making sure we used all the correct anatomical terminology. Well, it turns out we drove the guy to a class A anxiety attack (pity nobody had taught us about those) and I was genuinely afraid he was going to have a heart attack.
Red-face, profuse sweating, breathing difficulty and a look of primal terror in his eyes. We got the early mark we were fishing for, but I think we did the poor fellow some real emotional damage.
justanotherace
2. I had a Spanish teacher in middle school that was so tired of us turning in broken Spanish on our homework assignments that she screamed at us and called us stupid Americans before throwing pieces of chalk at us one after the other. Another time she got on her knees and started praying the rosary in front of us when a girl said “el pollo nugget.”
rstz
3. I had a chemistry class that was held in a huge auditorium with really steep stairs. The professor always walked all around the room while we took quizzes and tests.
One day he tripped halfway up the auditorium stairs and took a hell of a fall. He landed facedown– unhurt apart from bruises– on the floor and before we could really react he starts banging his fists on the floor and screaming, “ENTROPY ENTROPY ENTROPY!”
JanedJones
4. Junior year in university, my genetics professor was in the middle of a lecture when police took him out of the auditorium. (continued…)
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They informed him that his wife (the dean of our college) had been struck and killed by a motor vehicle that morning. He retreated to his office and proceeded to tear the place apart like a tornado had gone through it.
He ripped the top of his desk off its frame, pulled down all of his book cases; books, pages, papers, all sorts of documents and furniture strewn everywhere in pieces.
By the time I graduated he still wasn’t the same man as he was before that awful day.
Dont_Mess_With_Texas
5. In primary school, some kids were misbehaving and she broke down into tears, started screaming, and threw a chair.
We never saw her again.
dizzypixels93
6. Year 9 math class. Our teacher was off sick and a early 20’s substitute teacher came in to cover. She was lovely, kind, friendly, although a bit timid and shy.
One girl in our class used a fountain pen to flick ink on the skirt she was wearing one day. Poor woman noticed her do it, didn’t say a word and just went to her desks put her head in her hands and sobs. Doesn’t move for 10 minutes at least. Eventually a friend of mine goes to get another teacher.
The sub was escorted out, still crying and was seen for the rest of the day just crying in her car. Didn’t move for another 4 or so hours.
OPTTatholos
7. I had the same morning tutor from the age of 11-16. She was really, really lovely. She was an English teacher and we always chatted about literature and films. She was always up for a laugh and joked around with us all the time. A few times a year she’d buy a load of food and treats to dish out.
Then, when we were about 14 she got engaged. (continued…)
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A year later, the relationship was over and she was a wreck. She suddenly got really quiet. Then, one day, we were all talking and laughing but she was trying to get our attention. She couldn’t get the attention, and suddenly burst into tears. Took off her ID card and – in the dead silence of the room – said: “I can’t do this.” She walked out of the room and we didn’t see her again for weeks.
She’s now travelling the world. I have her on instagram, last time I checked she was in Nepal. Good for her.
commandersheppuuurd
8. In high school our Government teacher freaked out on my class.
We had a few talkers in the back corner and they finally broke him. He flipped his podium over and started screaming at us. He called us the worst group of kids he’d ever had to teach and that he was 110% accurate that we were going to be nothings.
Then he went to his desk and drank his entire thermos of coffee. A few years later, he was having a retirement party at his house, (I was close friends with his son) he revealed that the thermos was 80% whiskey and 20% coffee
ImFatWannaParty
9. Our former latin teacher once slapped a kid across the face because the kid made fun of her dead husband.
Teacher got suspended shortly afterwards.
OdinTheTurtle
10. I was in band. One day, one of the regular always in trouble/disruptive students was being extra disruptive while the director was trying to tell us something important. So after about five different attempts to get him to settle down, he cracked.
It got quiet and then the director bellowed “[Student’s Name]! ARE YOU STUPID, OR JUST DON’T GIVE A F?! The whole room was quiet, all eyes were now on the disruptive kid who was then trying to hide behind his tuba. Then the director continued with his announcement like nothing happened.
rangemaster
11. One day, our English teacher actually brought a gun to school. (continued…)
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It turns out she thought one of her whole classes was trying to kill her. She was in a mental hospital the last time I heard. Very sad. Thankfully she didnt hurt herself or anyone else.
never_stirred
12. We had an art teacher in year grade 5 who would lock himself in the supply cupboards and scream and rip his hair out. It was unsettling.
Dinosaur_Babygrow
13. In high school, I turned in a form to my science teacher a day late. She screamed at me, walked out the classroom and was gone for nearly an hour. Class had started and everyone had speculations, blaming me for what happened. Teacher comes back, joyful and smiling, says she just needed a walk around the campus to recover.
diad44
14. 10th grade was in math class and the teacher was getting frustrated that not everyone was understanding a problem and he made various threats of what he would do if we didn’t figure it out, more homework tests etc.
I kept asking questions because I legitimately didn’t understand. So he he yelled FSAKE! and threw an eraser at me. I got up and left. Never ratted him out and the next day he was super patient with everyone. It was his freebie.
ichabodc86
15. My super dorky history teacher in 8th grade was the nicest guy I’ve ever met, but there were a couple “class clowns” in our class. He usually dealt with them okay.
One day though, they pushed him too far. (continued…)
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One day though, they were obnoxious the entire period from the moment he walked in and he snapped, yelling and chucking his stapler across the room. He nailed a staple right into Ben Franklins forehead. He immediately apologized and went about his day normally, while all the students went silent. Nobody never bothered him again after that day.
mastication
16. We had an art teacher who had one glass eye. A student who had a rep for being a jerk (from a whole family of jerks – his sister beat me up in infant school) unwisely decided to stick his head around the door to the art room and yell:
Hey Mr. Harris, you one eye jack! This did no go down at all well with Mr. Harris, who terrified most kids.
Cue manic art teacher chasing student over the playing fields with a tent spike. The whole class was looking out the window following the chase – all it needed was Yakety Sax playing as a soundtrack!
Fuzzymentalist
17. I taught public high school for 7 years and have been teaching in a university ever since.
Every time one of these threads pops up, I expect to find the story of how I once broke down in tears when a cell phone rang in class.
Or the time I threw up in a trash can, brushed my teeth with bottled water right in front of all 42 of them, asked a janitor to come down and take the trash out, and went back to teaching after my favorite student of all time faked barfing noises because he knew it would make me puke.
Dodged another bullet.
MaidMilk
18. Not so much a breakdown but a “break” in normal behavior for sure. Our freshman english teacher was a small, soft-spoken woman who was kind of known to be a teacher you could walk all over with little (but not no) repercussions. (continued)
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We were in a review session after school and some upperclassmen were just hanging out in the hallways making lots of noise, so she was constantly poking her head out in the hall asking them to be quiet.
As we are all very silent reading or something the classroom door absolutely SLAMS shut. So hard the latch didn’t have time to catch and the door bounced back open. The teacher immediately yells “Oh hell no!” kicks off her heels and takes off out the door.
She caught up with the kid, who had taken a running start and kicked the door shut, and berated him for a good ten minutes, which we could hear clear as day from the end of the hall. It was like nothing we’d ever heard from her.
kramerica_intern
19. 7th grade history. Teachers first name was (seriously) Kermit. Student was chewing gum, putting on makeup, chatting, and reading a magazine during a lesson. Kermit calmly walks over to her desk and orders her to get out of her seat.
He then lofts the desk-chair thing above his head and hurls it over three rows of students to the cinder block wall where it smashes to pieces and falls in a pile on the floor at the back of the room.
Then commands the student to go sit back down at her desk. She goes and sits on the pile of steel frame and plywood, and Kermit continues on with the lecture. I’ve never seen such a red, angry, bearded rage face in my life.
chicken_on_stilts
20. I had a history teacher in HS; for context, this was in about 1980. To this day, I can’t quite recall what prompted this, but he stood in front of the entire class, shaking with rage, and said, “I am a homosexual!”
We were all just dumbfounded. Not that he was gay – none of us really cared – but that he felt obligated to make that announcement and in such an angry, defiant way.
clacaneus