We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. But then again, we aren’t all entrusted wth the futures of thousands of children.
This piece is based on a Quora question. Link on the last page.
1. Right on Q.
I think I was in the fourth grade around 1971. It was my second year at the new school they had built just at the bottom of the hill from my familys home. I was a terribly shy, terribly bookish little kid.
My favorite teacher was Mrs. Q. Everyones favorite teacher was Mrs.Q. She was tall, young, with dark hair, dark eyes and a deep tan. She touched the kids in a nice way, and we, the little boys, practically swooned.
And then, there was the rumor. None of us exactly believed it, but we had heard that Mrs. Q had posed for Playboy. But none of us took it seriously. It was just something we whispered to each other.
Then came the morning I walked to the bus stop to find my friends gathered around a magazine. They were transfixed by what they were looking at. I walked around to see what had captured their attention. I stopped breathing when I saw the pictures. There was dear Mrs. Q. Buck naked.
It was the first time I had ever seen a picture of a naked woman, and for Gods sake, it was Mrs. Q!
Of course, you couldnt keep a secret like that under wraps. Sometime during the day, the Playboy ended up in the hands of none other than Mrs. Q. We were all slavishly devoted to her through the end of the year. But when we came back from Summer break, she was gone.
We had no idea what happened to her. Our parents seemed to know something, but they wouldnt tell us. That was a different time. Teachers didnt have morals clauses in their contracts. And we all assumed she just went on a a different school to take care of a different bunch of kids. Lucky them.
Tom Kehoe
2. Mr. de Sade.
In seventh grade, there was one boy that our home room teacher hated. The kid was kind of a goof but never did anything really problematic until one day when he got mouthy with this teacher.
The teacher stood up in front of the classroom and told the class that he had to think of a good punishment for the kid. After a minute or two, he told the boy do go over to the corner and get on his hands and knees.
Then the teacher gave the kid an art eraser – you know, one of those rubbery squares about an inch or so long – and announced his punishment: the boy was to push the eraser around the perimeter of the room, on his hands and knees, with his nose!
The class watched the kid struggle inch by inch around the room and laughed, as you might expect a roomful of 12-year-olds to do. But the teacher just watched, almost greedily, with such a look of pleasure that I knew at that moment he shouldn’t be a teacher. That was my first exposure to cruelty for pleasure – sadism. It made me sick.
Jane Schneer
3. Chorus jock.
We have a sports teacher at our school, who perfectly fills the stereotype; big, monstrous, aggressive and macho. Hes actually a nice teacher, and a good one at that. Yet it came as no surprise to us when he told us he once did powerlifting competitions.
In an assembly we had he was telling us all about what he was like when he was younger. He was and still is a prepper and he loves to camp alone in the woods. He used to professionally windsurf all across the world. He was in the army for several years.
Then he finishes his speech by telling us he loved to be in musicals and was a great singer. He said he loved acting and performance too.
Now I more than anyone know that there are many diverse people who love theatre, but that shocked me more than anything. It was impossible to picture him, in costume, in something like Billy Elliot. If you met him, youd know exactly what I meant.
It would be as crazy as seeing Dwayne Johnson (the rock) in a fairy costume. Oh wait
Ivan Tregear
4. Sexual reunion.
When I was a young lad in high school, I was too big a geek to get a girlfriend. I was way too book smart for my own good, and wasnt tough enough to hang out with the jocks. I had the usual teenage hormones, but no girl would get within ten feet of me if she could avoid it.
As if that werent temptation enough, there were three female teachers in their mid- to late-20s who were very attractive. It goes without saying that these three lovely teachers were the objects of many fantasies, and not just for me.
I tried to improve my luck with the opposite sex, because I had a cool friend who was effortlessly able to chat up girls, and I hoped I could learn from him. I guess I did, but not in the way I hoped.
This friend told me of his sexual adventures, name-dropping here and there. He never went a weekend without getting lucky. He hooked up with dozens of girls.
A few years after we graduated high school, he and I met for coffee and were talking about an upcoming school reunion. The subject turned to some of the females who were going, and he was mentioning the ones he had slept with.
Suddenly he said, Maybe [20-something teacher] will be there I miss her.
My heart froze in my chest. My mouth dropped open. Perhaps I was a little too naive for my own good, even in my 20s, but I somehow thought it impossible that a teacher would show any interest in a high school kid.
So if youre surfing the web and think, God, it seems like every week a teacher is getting arrested for screwing a student, all I can say is, they just never got CAUGHT before.
Reid Butler
5. This is why there are rules against this.
One of my pharmacology teachers had an affair with one of the students in my school.
This is not the shocking part, every student knew about the inappropriate affair. It was one of those times when the gossip literally spread like wild fire.
She (the teacher) and he (the student) were doing many unmentionable things.
Study rooms in school would be found suspiciously locked from the inside. Lunch dates and gift exchanges were taking place. He was getting easy As in her class (I believe this was his intention).
However, what she was unaware of was that he had many such opportunistic arrangements with many other girls in school, albeit she was the only teacher in the flock.
Until one day she caught up to his tomfoolery. And she totally lost it.
She yelled and screamed and cursed. She slapped and pushed him. She cried and wailed and made a spectacle of herself.
The authorities were called in but she still wouldnt calm down. They had to lock her in the Deans office for a while to have her pull herself together. It was horrible. It was unbelievable.
She was lucky; they did not fire her. Instead, they gave her a chance to voluntarily resign.
Her complete disregard for the risk it posed to her career and how love drives away every ounce of common sense was very shocking.
Shreya Thacker
6. That was a freebie.
When I was in 3rd grade, there was a class bully by the name of Chris. My cousin Ryan was also in the class, and we were buddies. One day Chris decided to pick on my cousin. Incensed, I punched Chris in the face and knocked him clean out of his chair.
Horrified by what I had done, I quickly turned to see if the teacher had seen. She hadn’t. She had her back to the class writing on the chalk board and had missed the whole thing. I was so relieved. I attended a private school that employed corporal punishment and I was so sure I was going to get paddled.
I found out years later from my parents that she had actually seen the whole thing and had quickly turned to the board to hide her huge smile. She had been aching to punch Chris herself for months.
Chris never bothered me or my cousin again.
Shelby Buttimer
7. Celebrity teacher.
My grade 3 teacher, Mrs. Nel was a no nonsense fiery redhead. We were terrified of her! My previous 2 teachers were so kind and gentle and soft spoken but Mrs. Nel, never smiled! She DID NOT tolerate any laughing or talking in her class, and homework not done, would almost be a death sentence!
I was pretty miserable for the first 4 months of grade 3, but tried to keep a low profile and stay out of her way.
After homework one night, I watched a local sitcom about a long distance passenger train that would travel from town to town picking people up and dropping them off and it usually had a story about one of them.
Well, guess who I saw on the show!
Mrs. Nel! She was sitting in one of the coaches with a lady friend and a crook came into their coach trying to rob them of their valuables. She and the friend attacked the crook and managed to shove him out of the window. He was hanging on for dear life and MRS. NEL took off her high heeled shoe and smacked his fingers until he let go!
Well, the monster of grade 3 turned into a celebrity overnight! Almost half the class saw this sitcom and we bombarded her with questions. She tried to deny it at first but we were not having any of that. In the end she burst out laughing and thanked us for our interest!
No one could take her too seriously after that. Grade 3 turned out pretty awesome in the end!
Willemien Van Vuuren
8. Extracurriculars.
A woman stormed into class, slapped our (young, female) teacher, and called her a horrible name.
We found out later that the woman was another teachers wife. The two teachers were having an affair.
Shannon Dorothy Parker
9. Nunsense.
I went to Catholic grammar school, and had nuns for almost all my teachers. They were mostly very stern women, with very little personality and even less sense of humor.
In 8th grade, we had a trip to New York City. After touring some museums we all had lunch in Little Italy. My group sat at the table with Sister Patricia, who was pretty new at the school, and a few decades younger than most of the other nuns.
Everyone at the table was shocked when she ordered an Old Fashioned (a cocktail made with Rye Whiskey). They couldnt believe a nun was drinking alcohol. It was no big surprise to me, my grandmother had two sisters who were nuns, and they drank like fish every time they visited.
Someone asked- Sister Patricia, are you allowed to drink? She replied- What Mother Imelda doesnt know, wont hurt her! and took another sip.
Maura Rudd
10. Teachers’ colleges need to be more selective.
“Hey Davis, remember your old 5th grade teacher?” Sure. “Well he was just arrested.” What for?
Pedophilia.
I was surprised, because he never did anything suspicious or sinister. He never appeared threatening, he was just a normal dude. I didnt let it bother me for long, but it sure was uncomfortable to think about.
Davis Zung
11. I thought she ate drywall.
My grade three teacher was a seething, raging monster who screamed at the entire class every day. Her face and neck would go beet red in long, uneven stripes. She would wave her clenched fists and even her hair would shudder as she shrieked. Even the best students at the front were terrified of her. We expected her to throw desks through the windows, but she didn’t.
One day I was in the grocery store and I saw her come in. I needed to hide quick so I barricaded myself behind the toilet paper packages and held my breath. But I could still see her.
There she was buying groceries! The monster of grade three ATE GROCIERIES! I told people in my class, but nobody believed me.
Rathkeale Timmins
12. We were all young once.
More impressed than shocked. At age 11, back in the mid-80s, our class had a teacher who was an old lady and we loved her, but at that age would not have imagined her as anything other than a very sweet old lady. When we were learning about the 2nd World War she brought in old photos.
It was her, an incredibly beautiful and brave very young woman of no more than 19, who had travelled from England to Berlin after the war, with the Red Cross, to help provide emergency aid to the people there, and help them rebuild.
The whole class was shaken and amazed, not just that she had once been young, but that she had, at that time and climate, a noble enough heart to see ‘enemies’ as people and reach out to them, feed them, clothe them, find them housing and give them hope.
We all learned so much from that and saw her, and the world, in a new light. God bless that teacher.
Jennifer Borrett
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