I’m a male grade school teacher and although I love teaching, teaching in this area is very sexist. Through my placements in University I had been told by every female supervisory teacher never to make physical contact with students, each stating simply because I’m a male (insinuating male teachers molest). Each meeting I sat in female teachers would make jokes about males and various stereotypes, often verbally bashing their husbands. My last placement was with an ex-divorcee, from the first week I knew I was in trouble. This teacher nit picked everything I did, commenting on my handwriting being poor (despite the writing being in my own personal notes), in the end I contacted the University and left as she made it apparent I wouldn’t pass. Since then I completed the remaining weeks and graduated.

I derive a great deal of satisfaction from teaching however it can be uncomfortable dealing with these kind of middle aged women. It is no surprise to me that men go on to become principals and vice principals in a bid to leave the teaching area. Anyone else here in teaching?

I started my teaching position over 25 years ago.  Even then I noticed how bratty students could be.  Unfortunately, many of the administration’s policies defied any semblance of logic and reason.

The biggest mistake in educational policy was to adopt the doctrine of “student as customer”.  That pretty much meant that administrators washed their hands of any responsibility and it was open season on instructors.  The kiddies could do whatever they wanted.

I was reminded of that during my final year of teaching.  I taught some service courses to a different department and, for one, I ended up with my all-time worst group of students.  I had no problem with there being a large number of women in it.  I always judged my students based on the quality of their work and I remember one young lady in my own department who aced everything.

Nearly 30 years ago, I courted someone who was not only a music teacher, she also taught kindergarten.  She often told stories about the children, particularly how they behaved if they didn’t get what they wanted or otherwise expected.  In the service course I mentioned, it was as if I had her kindergarten kiddies, but a lot older.  Sadly, most of the women in it showed the most atrocious behaviour.  Brattyness would be a mild description.  For example, if I had a dime for each time I heard the words “It’s not fair!” (i. e., I can’t get away with doing whatever I please and be amply rewarded for it), I’d be a rich man.

One self-empowered self-entitled princess thought she could yack with her buddies any time she felt like, even while I was lecturing.  Another didn’t like the fact that I penalized her on an exam for not showing me how she arrived at her answer.  Her excuse was that she punched the numbers in her calculator (which she didn’t mention, by the way) and she verbally tore a strip off me for that, emphatically stating that I was at fault for not knowing that.  I often complained to the department head about the antics of those wee urchins but he simply brushed them aside.  He wasn’t worried about what happened as he had a year or two left before he retired.  (That happened a lot in that place.)

The princess failed my course, but marginally so.  The protocol was that she could write a supplemental exam to raise her grade to a pass, but she had to ask me if she could.  That never happened, so I figured she simply flunked it, rightly earning that distinction.  When the graduation list was published in the newspaper a few months later, guess whose name was on the list?  You guessed it!  So was the loudmouth.

I hung on just long enough for my financial portfolio to be worth a minimum level.  When I reached that goal, I kept asking myself why I was still there.  I finally decided to pack it in and resigned.  When I saw that graduation list, which was after I’d quit, I knew I made the right decision.  That was nearly 13 years ago.  Based on what I hear about how things are now, I’m glad I’m no longer in that business.

One of my friends who taught for near 30 years got in a lot of trouble about four years ago. when i would visit him in his city we would (and sometimes still do) hang out at his very nice house across the street from the beach and enjoy a cigar and cognac on his patio and discuss things. he was getting near retirement at that time and found that everyone was against him as he hit that stage. he’s one of those old school rare breeds that teaches factual information, doesn’t take any s~~~ from anyone, and wasn’t afraid of lowering grades for students not doing their work. His reward for this was getting completely screwed over by the district and barely escaped with his pension. He had been holding his students to certain standards for years and was well liked by students and the community UNTIL a female student got p~~~ed off at him for giving her a D. she wasn’t showing up for class, didn’t do her assignments and he had a talk with her and said he should flunk her but he was being nice and giving her a D. she went home to mommy and daddy and started all the buzzword smear campaign against him and the family filed a formal complaint to have him terminated after 26 years of service. he had to appear numerous times in front of admins explaining himself and got completely ill from the worry that this brought him. Of course, after that complaint was filed, a couple other deadbeat female students filed complaints as well and then his life got really f~~~ed. after being married for 25 years, his wife sided with the complaining female students believing bulls~~~ from the hive and totally not supporting him in his time of crisis. in fact, she filed for divorce WHILE that was going on. So here he was, student complaints mounting up, wife leaving, admins hating on him publicly.

He had to hire an attorney at great expense and go to his union and go through a ton of s~~~ before righting the ship and hanging on until he got his pension confirmed. Students as customers is scary s~~~ man. I talked to him about a month ago and he’s so ill now from the stress of that situation he isn’t really enjoying himself even though he’s got enough money. he has multiple heath problems and is having trouble walking.  he got killed in the divorce and is thinking about ex pat status as he just can’t take what the system has become.

My miseries began shortly after I started.  Most of my colleagues effectively retired on the job and their ineptitude and slackness made mine all the harder.  They often let the students get away with all sorts of garbage which, had I tried them as an undergrad, I would have been expelled.  But the chap I shared an office with was particularly nasty to me and he was determined to get rid of me.  (There are indications that he might have had a hand in a predecessor of mine leaving after a year and he might have pulled similar stunts with another colleague as well as some support staff.)

Things got worse after he was promoted to assistant department head.  Any error that I committed as a rookie was elevated into a crime against humanity by this guy.  Then the department head I started with retired after 2 years and the ADH quickly went to the replacement to besmirch my reputation.  That was when I first heard the rumour that I “hated” women….. and I don’t mean saying uncharitable things about them, if you get my drift.

When the department head went on leave after 6 months on the job (yeah, nobody else could figure that one out, either), the ADH was temporarily in charge and he decided it was open season on me.  To make a long story short, the situation ended up in the associate dean’s office and, after an investigation, I was found to be nowhere near as bad as the ADH portrayed me as being.

I took a year’s leave to finish my second master’s degree and had, in between time, started part-time on my Ph. D.  That was like waving the proverbial rag in front of a rather unhappy bull.  It wasn’t enough that the ADH went at me, the DH did, too.  It went on for several years and, ultimately, became quite ridiculous.

In one instance, one female student was unhappy with the grade she received on her lab report.  I suggested she stop by my office and we discuss it as I was willing to let her explain herself because, perhaps, I misunderstood something.  It didn’t take long for her to storm out of my office after opening up the waterworks.  Guess who got blamed for that?

A few days later, that twerp came and asked me if she could re-write it.  Since I knew I’d get skinned if I refused, I agreed, though reluctantly.  I never saw a revised lab report and, as far as I know, she not only passed the course, she graduated as well.  I can well imagine what sort of employee she would have made if she pulled stunts like that on the job.

I eventually finished my doctorate but, typically, my detractors punished me for it.  For example, I was threatened with severe disciplinary action if I ever had my students address me as Dr. Vertical, something I could only laugh at.  I not only earned it, I had every legal right to use the title because it was granted by the university on behalf of the provincial government.

Eventually, I quit because I knew that someone was eventually going to come up with something to hang me with, even if they had to invent it.  (If you look up the term “academic mobbing” on the Internet, you may come across the name Ken Westhues.  He wrote extensively on the subject.)

The thing is the ADH was, by himself, quite the milquetoast.  I strongly suspect that his wife was behind it as she certainly had a personality for that sort of thing.  She was relatively nice to me in person, but I got the impression that she was all to willing to trash my reputation when I was out of earshot.  As for the department head, he wanted to be a big fish in a small pond and would stop at nothing to get there.

And then there was stuff I had to deal with while I was a grad student, but I’ll save that for later.

Among them was a motormouth land whale who acted like normal rules of behaviour didn’t apply to her.  One day, her incessant nattering got on my nerves, so I stopped my lecture, walked over to her, and told her in no uncertain terms:  “Shut up!”  Her response?  Indignation, of course, plus the admonition that I didn’t treat her “with respect”.  Of course, that wasn’t the last I heard of that incident.

Later, I set a mid-term exam and one jerk decided to turn the whole class against me because he thought it was too tough.  For one thing, I refused to tell him what was going to be on the exam, despite his asking me because he didn’t want to study the “wrong” material.  (Whatever happened to being accountable for everything that was in the course?)  Because he was in a wheelchair, he was allowed to write it in the student services centre and was allowed extra time.  The problem was, according to what someone from that office described to me, he showed up zonked out of his gourd and couldn’t finish a 1- or 2-hour exam in–get this–8 hours.  As a result, he started a petition against me and that resulted in a meeting between their department head (who didn’t want many hassles as he was close to retirement), the class, and me.  Of course, I was hung out to dry, and it was during that session that the motormouth whined that I was being a meanie to her.

So I cancelled the exam and let them re-do it as a take-home.  I knew very well that they’d cheat, but I turned it to my advantage.  The class average was at least 90%, so I sent a memo to my department head (who wanted to have me strung up for what happened) and told him that I had “underestimated” their abilities.  And, yes, I found it hard to keep a straight face when I wrote it.

Later, 2 of the women told me after the end of the final exam that they had to cheat as they wouldn’t have passed the course otherwise.  What hurt was one of them was the best student in the course.  So, it was my fault that they cheated….  How about learning the course material properly to begin with?

As for the chap in the wheelchair, he eventually graduated and the attitude of most of the instructors who I knew had him in their courses was “good riddance to bad rubbish”.  There wasn’t anyone on whom he didn’t try stunts like that.

I’ve got more such gems to tell you, if you’d like.

Oh, by the way, the reason I was supposed to be prohibited from using my title?  It “intimidated” my students, making them scared to ask me questions, thereby impairing their learning.  Somehow, it didn’t prevent them from being rude and impudent to my face….

Dr. Vertical: I gotta hand it to you man. You ingeniously outwitted the nitwits on this one. Damn, I agree….whatever happened to learning the f~~~ing material from the course? How about ALL OF IT? and that wheelchair guy, man he was working you over and then couldn’t do an exam in 8 hours? then you let them take it home and got commended? f~~~ man, you are working your way up to BrainPilot status.

I do hope you’ll keep posting because your strategies are superior and we can all learn from them. High five man and have a good rest of the night!

note: no actual motormouth landwhales, stoners in wheelchairs, or females secretly admitting that school is too hard for them are actually contained in this urn. thank you