I wrote this a while ago when I was upset (and angry ) about what my teacher had done to me, there is a lot of ego centrism in there, but that was just to make myself feel better. Feel free to comment. I didn't suspect I had Asperger's back then.

How many times have we heard of cases where students disrespected their teachers? A lot. But it’s not always that way, sometimes; it’s the other way round. If you don’t like teaching, don’t do it. If you’re going to act like a total diva, then don’t teach. Teaching is not about acting like you’re omnipotent, it’s about helping students to learn. Now if you’re not willing to do that, then go home. You could be the best teacher in the world, don’t, and I repeat, don’t, disrespect your students. One would rather have the worst teacher in the world who showed enthusiasm and love towards their students then a teacher who is twice as capable of delivering the lesson but shows no interest in the topic being taught. If you’re going to teach something, do it well, or don’t do it at all. If you’ve been teaching for far too long now and got bored of it, stop. Teaching is not an easy task, but neither is learning, and it’s twice as hard when the teacher isn’t a good one. Often, when students dislike the teacher, they dislike the subject. Now if you want to teach just to have some income, then don’t even call yourself a teacher, you don’t deserve to be treated with respect. Teaching is not about sitting down and reading from a textbook, it’s about helping their children to develop skills which they will use throughout their lives. If you’re a teacher, then act like a good teacher, go the extra mile, do the effort! You are responsible for the future of the world, you are teaching the men and women of tomorrow, it’s a big responsibility!! If you’re going to act like an ego-filled diva who’d rather do anything then teach children, then stop teaching! You’re wasting your time, you’re wasting ours...I’m Nicole, and this is my story.

I’m a student, perfectionist to say the least. I always want to do the best I can, reach my goals, achieve the most I can. I’m naturally very shy and quiet person, and I don’t speak in class unless I necessarily have to, but I’m academically inclined. I’m always top of my class, and I’m not going to lie about it. I’m not usually this much of a show-off by the way, but this has been written when I was emotionally driven by anger and sadness. Anyway, I love school, and I always try my best to get good marks. Form 3 started, new subjects, new topics and, new teachers...We had two new teachers, one of them, I liked in particular. This teacher, was a good teacher, knew how to teach the subject, knew how to deliver the topic and knew how to solve any difficulties. This teacher showed clear signs of experience in all aspects of her subjects: Mathematics, and Physics. It was my first time taking Physics, but I’m a natural at mathematics, reasoning is my strong point, and I never had problems with the subject before. I was always very quiet in her classes, never participated and never raised my hand to answer a question, but whenever I was asked, I always got it right. I seldom asked questions, when I did, they were of depth and portrayed clear understanding of the topic at hand. As soon as the lessons with this teacher started, I immediately developed a liking towards this teacher, after three weeks, I classified her as my favorite. She too, liked me as a student, maybe due to the fact that she had seen my previous exam marks, or maybe credited to my interest in her subjects. Regardless, she never had a problem with me, and I never had a problem with her. Mathematics test, Aced, along with a few other students in class. Physics test, Aced, only one in the class who got full marks.


At this point, I had started to develop a liking towards Physics, by liking, I mean unconditional love which could also be considered as an obsession. After the first term of school, I already had mugs, key chains and apparel portraying my love for the subject. I loved it, and I showed it, I was always interested in the lessons, and I was always the one the teacher asked when nobody else knew the answer. I loved the teacher as well, and often found myself being the only one enjoying the lessons. I did not know that I was hypnotizing myself, that I was not seeing what the teacher really was. A cloud of fog known as my love for Physics was covering the path which led to the truth. My friends, some of which hated both Mathematics, and Physics, also hated the teacher, but me, I was too blind to dislike her, I did not know who she really was. I admired her, as the teacher of my favorite subjects, the teacher who always praised and congratulated me. In fact, she had inspired me to consider becoming a teacher myself. I’d be lying if I say that I did not have an emotional attachment towards her, so I’m not going to say it, but I considered her as my teacher, and treated her with the respect that deserves to be shown to one. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but I know that something did happen. I don’t know what could have caused this as everything was as usual, I always did my homework, and I always acted as I do in lessons. All the praise I used to receive, stopped, even the rightful praise which she gave whenever someone got something right had disappeared. One time, I was indirectly called a “computer addict” by my teacher, whether meaningfully or for humor purposes I did not know.



I should stop here and tell you a little bit about this teacher. She was in her thirties, mother of two children and although I did not know an exact number, I could tell she had been teaching for a number of years. She was very intelligent, and very knowledgeable in her subjects. She was a gifted mathematician and could always solve any difficulty we had. She was, or appeared to be, the perfect teacher. The problem with her was that she acted like a diva, always complaining about anything, especially the cold, and always stating that she wanted to go home and that she longed for holidays. In other words, she showed no enthusiasm at all. Neither do I know whether this was how she acted everyday or whether it was just at school, and frankly, nor do I care. You cannot come into class without any enthusiasm towards teaching and then expect the students to look forward to your lesson! She was considerably strict and equally hard-headed, she knew she was smart and she showed it. Not one lesson would pass without her remarking how intelligent she was or gloating about practically everything. She was a show-off, and everyone knew it, even I, who at that time was living in my own word of everything being perfect, noticed she was a show off. She was very witty, and often passed sarcastic remarks about students, even sometimes about their academic capabilities. One can argue that this is just her teaching style, but some students may take things as a joke, while other students may take whatever the teacher said personally. I was part of the latter, as, since I had respected her so much and looked up at her as a role model, was hurt by what she had said. It might have not been intentional, but at that time,I took it as such.



After the “incident” after which I was completely demoralized and lost all enthusiasm towards the subjects and her, I became even shyer. I could not speak to the teacher without my cheeks resembling two tomatoes of the highest quality, and sometimes, I could not even speak at all. One time, when I was asked to state the law of conservation of momentum ( I did so, word by word), I was shivering uncontrollably, and not due to the cold. I had lost all confidence I had with her, and I just couldn’t regain it.

Another thing which was noticeable with this teacher was that she was known to make mistakes. By that I mean that the notes she had given us on both Mathematics and Physics had more misspelt words than correct ones. One would argue by saying they were typing errors. There were typing errors, but “sence” and “happenning” written down incorrectly three consecutive times are not typing errors. I believe that we are all humans and that we all make mistakes, but for me, this shows a lack of organization and enthusiasm. Even a nine-year-old would check to see if they had any mistakes before giving notes to an entire class, let alone a teacher! I guess we could let the mistakes on the notes slip, but then, mistakes on the exam paper?!? Not only English mistakes, but she even had a numerical error which turned an 11000kg van into an 1100kg van. For me, this shows a lack of commitment towards her job.

After the mid-yearly exam, she threw a tantrum on how everyone did badly in the exam and how most of the students failed. Obliged to do so, we did a class correction of the exam paper of Physics and Maths. In one particular question, I had another answer to a question, this, is known as an opinion. I asked her about it, and after about ten minutes of discussing, she stated that my answer is still correct but it’s not in the syllabus. A few days later, she saw my mum and told her how I “argued with her” and “questioned her judgment”. She also stated that “I thought I had a point but in reality, I didn’t.” That was very nice of her, the inch of confidence I had, she destroyed. There was nothing more to do beyond this point, it’s useless to keep trying, and keep failing, I will never speak in her lesson again....

My question is to you, Miss (I don't wish to say her name), do you consider yourself a teacher? Coming to class and doing a lesson is not teaching. Anyone could come to class and explain something, but that’s not teaching, that’s wasting time. Next time, please learn from your mistakes, the countless number of mistakes that you do, and learn how to teach. It might be too late for you, but I, unlike you, want the best for the future of our world. Thank you for giving me the pleasure of learning through your mistakes, hopefully, I will be a better person in life, nice to have known you...