Teachers
I'm sure everyone knows that teachers can have a huge impact ... both negative and postive ... on their students. From kindergarten through grade 12 I can remember only 5 who had a negative impact on me. Three(two in grade school, one in high school) taught me that, no matter what I did, someone else would always be better. Another, in high school, taught me that girls would never be as good as boys when it comes to math. I still have an aversion to numbers. The fifth, in grade school, was just plain mean and I still feel the affect she had on me. The reason I'm writing this is that I just had a flashback of her, and an incident in her classroom.
A little while ago, I was talking to someone in a different room. I had to repeat myself twice. Then, he said in a sing-songy voice "I can't hear you." I repeated what I said at the same time I had the flashback.
When I was a kid, I was painfully shy, even more than I am now. Because of my shyness, and my long-standing self-esteem issues, I spoke very quiety, almost in a whisper sometimes. One day in school I was trying to get the attention of my friend, which of course I shouldn't have been doing. My friend didn't hear me, so I whispered louder. She still didn't hear me, so I whispered louder still. Then the teacher said "Ann (it was before I added the "e."), we can't hear you when you're called on to answer a question but, we sure can hear you when you want to talk to Sue when you're not supposed to." Kids being kids, everyone (except my 3 best friends) cracked up at this. I was devastated. The only thing that kept me from crying was the fact that I knew crying about it would make everyone laugh more. I understand that I needed to be reprimanded but, was embarrassing a painfully shy third-grader in front of the entire class in the best interests of the child?
That incident did nothing for my shyness, believe me. In fact, it made me even more reluctant to participate in class for years to come. Standing in front of the class to speak? Forget it! I was a basket case. I was a junior in high school before I even started to get over that. Even then, it wasn't easy. If it wasn't for The Best Friend having confidence in me and pushing me to reach my potential, I'd probably still be a basket case when I had to talk in front of people. I'm not all that confident now but, at least I can do it.
It amazes me that nearly 40 years later I can still picture that incident as if it happened yesterday. There are good and bad people in every profession and, for the most part, I think teachers are good people. But I do think it's sad that the bad ones can leave such a long-standing impression.
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