Sadistic teachers

[Lilith7]

Came across this - I suspect most of us will have had similar experiences. I certainly did. The headmaster also taught the two final years & he disliked me for some reason I've never worked out, & after a while I was none too keen on him either. He took delight in picking on various kids & ridiculing them, whenever he got the chance.
I went to a small country school & once into the last two years we all had to be bussed to another school for what was then called 'manual training' - cooking for girls & woodwork or metalwork for boys.
The roads were mostly shingle so vehicles got dusty, & one day I committed the heinous crime of writing in the dust on the back of the bus 'please clean me' - highly original.

The absolute bastard saw me or someone told - I never knew which & so he decided that the only fitting punishment was to strap me. At that time it was a boys only punishment there, but he did it any way.

I had a very strong sense that it was wrong. And it was our last year before high school so I waited. Waited until the last day & sneaked into the empty class & cut the strap into little pieces.

I've never once been sorry I did it.

So who else has a similar story of awful teachers...?


https://www.newsroom.co.nz/letter-to-a-s...1678039622

[Olive]

Oh my goodness yes, lots of stories of sadistic cruel teachers. In primary school, back in the days of streaming, I was in the top group and we were targeted by several of our teachers for ridicule. One teacher in particular, "Mr James", would creep up behind me as I sat diligently at my little desk, eight years old and with a reading age of 14, and he would cough and as we all turned around he would pop his false teeth out to scare us then stand there glaring at us looking like a monster. I've never forgotten. He would give the strap to boys but not girls. The girls were all too intimidated to act up. it was creepy as well as scary.

[king1]

one of my less than memorable school experiences was being given the strap because some asshole kid in my class said they had seen me stealing lunch out of another students lunch box, which I absolutely did not... No amount of pleading helped me escape the strap. In hindsight, even if I had done so there is just so much wrong with it

[Magenta69]

The male teachers never strapped the girls, but Mrs Harris in Standard one strapped me for talking when I wasn't supposed to be. I wasn't a naughty kid, so it was a bit extreme. A lesser punishment would have been just as effective.

[Kenj]

The strap, I could live with that. We did the cutting thingy in Standard 4. Teacher wasn't a bad guy and told us it usually happened at the end of each year.

I think that one of the problems with teachers in those days that such a lot of them were returned WW2 vets whom the Govt. offered teacher training as a return to normality. Some of them were bound to be a bit screwed up after being away at war.

When I went to Co-ed High School, I was a chubby early teen suffering from pimples and weight gain, just having found out to my amazement that girls had another purpose in life other than going backwards when dancing. Very self conscious about all this!

The dirty rotten swine S.O.B bar-steward science teacher, calling out our names individually and loudly, asked us what we wanted to take, one of the choices was nutrition. When he got to me, he didn't ask, he said "Aaah, J.....s, you don't look like you need Nutrition" I wished the floor had opened up and swallowed me as everybody laughed.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Teachers are in a position of power in a classroom, and no matter what the class, bullying will happen now and then. I was very taken aback a few years ago, to discover one of my teachers in a post grad programme at an Auckland university was a dedicated tantrum throwing bully and worse, well known among the faculty and outside for being so. The strange thing was he had received awards for his teaching within the organisation and was a very talented teacher on his good days, but on his bad days he was an appalling monster who delighted in tearing down a vulnerable student with a screaming rant to which there was just no adequate response.

I learnt a hell of a lot from being in his class for a few short weeks, very little about the subject he taught, but a great deal about what happens when you make a formal complaint about someone within an organisation that has no procedures and pathways in place to support such a process. Everytime I read of a child who has been bullied, or abused by an authority figure, I understand all too well just what it feels like to be first assaulted by that person, and then repeatedly hurt by the system hellbent on protecting not the victim, but the bully.

My professor still teaches that class today. And I was most definitely no child during my time in that class.

[Lilith7]

The strap, I could live with that. We did the cutting thingy in Standard 4. Teacher wasn't a bad guy and told us it usually happened at the end of each year.

I think that one of the problems with teachers in those days that such a lot of them were returned WW2 vets whom the Govt. offered teacher training as a return to normality. Some of them were bound to be a bit screwed up after being away at war.

When I went to Co-ed High School, I was a chubby early teen suffering from pimples and weight gain, just having found out to my amazement that girls had another purpose in life other than going backwards when dancing. Very self conscious about all this!

The dirty rotten swine S.O.B bar-steward science teacher, calling out our names individually and loudly, asked us what we wanted to take, one of the choices was nutrition. When he got to me, he didn't ask, he said "Aaah, J.....s, you don't look like you need Nutrition" I wished the floor had opened up and swallowed me as everybody laughed.

That bullying & singling a child out wasn't uncommon back then, & I think you may well be right about some of those teachers not coping well after what they'd been through. Perhaps they may even have had PTSD to an extent, who knows because it likely wasn't recognised or understood then.

---

Teachers are in a position of power in a classroom, and no matter what the class, bullying will happen now and then. I was very taken aback a few years ago, to discover one of my teachers in a post grad programme at an Auckland university was a dedicated tantrum throwing bully and worse, well known among the faculty and outside for being so. The strange thing was he had received awards for his teaching within the organisation and was a very talented teacher on his good days, but on his bad days he was an appalling monster who delighted in tearing down a vulnerable student with a screaming rant to which there was just no adequate response.

I learnt a hell of a lot from being in his class for a few short weeks, very little about the subject he taught, but a great deal about what happens when you make a formal complaint about someone within an organisation that has no procedures and pathways in place to support such a process. Everytime I read of a child who has been bullied, or abused by an authority figure, I understand all too well just what it feels like to be first assaulted by that person, and then repeatedly hurt by the system hellbent on protecting not the victim, but the bully.

My professor still teaches that class today. And I was most definitely no child during my time in that class.

I think that's almost as bad as  victimising & bullying a child; you'd expect someone in his position to manage far more self control - & that the University allowed it to continue despite having been told about it is disgraceful. He sounds almost unbalanced - OK sometimes but utterly manic at others.

One of our art teachers in high school recalled her time at Uni, & an art tutor there who verbally attacked another student who was disabled by asking if perhaps her mind was as twisted as her body; as high school pupils it came a s a shock that that could happen.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Just a thought, but PTSD is not an excuse to hurt anyone. Enjoying that is a whole other mental health issue.

[Kenj]

I met my nemesis whilst waiting for a train a few years after, I would have been in my mid 20's. Told him that he was a useless pile of #*&@^!%@*#)$__$%)$($#*. (Did I spell that right?)

[Lilith7]

I met my nemesis whilst waiting for a train a few years after, I would have been in my mid 20's. Told him that he was a useless pile of #*&@^!%@*#)$__$%)$($#*. (Did I spell that right?)

Spot on, I'd say...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I don't think I would be able to do that. I find the thought of the man intimidating.

I wouldn't trust myself though if I thought I could get away with a bit of target practice.

[Zurdo]

I remember girls getting The Strap in Primary School...but yeah, I think it was always a woman teacher that gave it to them. In High School it was the cane...we would notch our belt, some kids had to start on a new belt having done both sides. The Phys Ed teacher was a particularly bad one...caned naked after a shower...head under the taps so you'd smack your head into them if you stood up. One time, head under the taps, bare arse, a mate laughed at me, so the teacher made him cane me, but said it wasn't good enough, so did it himself anyway. What a total arsehole. I hear he was had up on some charge years later.

[harm_less]

Phys Ed teachers are particularly sadistic in my experience. I well remember a Phys Ed rugby session where the teacher Mr Sowersby decided i hadn't participated fully so I was given the ball and the class instructed to 'take me out'.

I have motor skills difficulties so have always struggled to catch a ball, or skip rope for that matter, and on the odd occasion that I had received the ball during the class I had the intelligence to offload it before getting tackled, obviously to Keith Sowersby's disapproval. Arsehole!

[Lilith7]

I remember girls getting The Strap in Primary School...but yeah, I think it was always a woman teacher that gave it to them.  In High School it was the cane...we would notch our belt, some kids had to start on a new belt having done both sides.  The Phys Ed teacher was a particularly bad one...caned naked after a shower...head under the taps so you'd smack your head into them if you stood up. One time, head under the taps, bare arse, a mate laughed at me, so the teacher made him cane me, but said it wasn't good enough, so did it himself anyway. What a total arsehole.  I hear he was had up on some charge years later.

I think - I hope - that there's less chance of getting away with that kind of sadistic behaviour in these times. I'd like to think that we're all more aware of the damage done by it.
But naturally there will be those who say that we're all just too 'woke' these days.

---

I don't think I would be able to do that. I find the thought of the man intimidating.

I wouldn't trust myself though if I thought I could get away with a bit of target practice.

The comments in this thread make me wonder if perhaps there might not be a possibility of some brave (& younger & fitter) person, who might like to take up the task of shall we say 'evening the score' with some of those past absolute arsehole teachers...


And...I'd go further & say that just the idea might make an interesting TV series. tracking them down & dishing out a bit of what they brought upon themselves.  


I appear to be getting far worse as I get older.

[Zurdo]

Men returning after WWII with mental problems - yes. Our engineering teacher told us not to be worried about mental illness...brave stuff for the '60's.

But his caning method was an exercise in psychology, oh, and how we enjoyed this rare event, scared us shitless ! First off he'd send us to the back of the shop to start clearing stuff out of the way. Then he'd get his poor victim to stand with his toes on the line where the concrete of the forge/welding area joined the wooden floorboards, and bend over. Then he'd do some slow practice swings...tapping us out of the way, or maybe to move something further out of the way...this was all slow and deliberate. Then he'd get a piece of chalk and draw a line on the victims pants, and tell us that if we saw more than one mark, we were to tell him, so he could improve his aim for next time - and yes, inspecting cane marks was all part of the game. And then he'd finally do it - a touch to the arse, a slow backswing, and then THWACK !!! Just 2. By the look on the face of those receiving these 2 canes, it really, really, really hurt - but, they were probably just the same as any other teachers caning, but the whole show just made it hurt so, so much more. Some kids actually broke down and cried pleading not to be caned by him, but he never backed down. Shit, this was ruthless, cruel, humiliating stuff.

But Mr Ganley was not a sadistic teacher, he was an old school engineer (Watson Steel and Ganley), and he was teaching us stuff...and engineering is much more than working with metal.

[Olive]

Some awful stories here, and none that indicate any educational advantages from the bullying and sadism.

I went to an aspirational girls' high school and the headmistress was terrifying. She would suddenly appear from around a corner in the playground and we would be sweating with fear. Sometimes a pupil would piss themselves in terror. And we didn't come out of that with a good education, we were all too anxious to be able to learn things in that culture of intimidation. I still have a block when learning foreign languages because of a French teacher who ridiculed us every time we spoke.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

My Grandfather taught at Auckland Grammar a very long time ago. The Head ruled without question. Smoking was a caning offence. In his second year my Grandfather was informed a boy in his class had been caught smoking and the Head required him to be caned in front of the class. So my Grandfather had the boy bend over and he gave him three of the six, and noticed smoke coming from the boys pants. He had a pack of wax matches in his pocket.

He never caned another boy. Nor did he ever use corporal punishment with his children, three boys and two girls, born a fair while after the 'pants on fire' incident...

[Kenj]

I like that.... "Liar, liar, pants on fire"

[nzoomed]

My teacher used to spank us for no real reason that I can remember, this was at the age of 5 at the end of the 80s.
Thats not something you would get away with today! I wonder if any of the kids complained?

[Lilith7]

My teacher used to spank us for no real reason that I can remember, this was at the age of 5 at the end of the 80s.
Thats not something you would get away with today! I wonder if any of the kids complained?

I'm surprised it happened even then - I'd have thought that by then,  we might have learned a bit better than using physical violence against kids.