30 Former Students Who Grew Up To Become Not Who Their Teachers Expected Them To, As Shared In This Online Group

There was a kid in my high school class who had severe dyslexia and acalculia, and although he clearly had a sharp mind when you spoke to him, it wasn't clear he was going to go far. His main interest back in school was blowing sh*t up and building bombs, and he went off to mining school so that he could work with explosives.

He got his PhD before I got my bachelor's, for building a robot that goes down mines and uses lasers to make a 3d map of the mine, doing a week's work for a surveying team in a couple hours (and without putting human lives at risk).

He's charming, his wife and kids are charming, and he builds robots with fricken lasers on them. Not bad for the kid couldn't read and only cared about blowing sh*t up

I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he’s on his way to being an astrophysicist. He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I’ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him.

I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were "fu*k you!" -- many years later he came back to the school I'd been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize. In his words, "I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I'm sorry".

I cried like a baby - I was so proud of him.

I started in elementary school. One of my first students I had when she was In 3rd grade. Her father was abusive when she was younger and mom left him and was raising her on her own, but her mom was also heavily involved in gangs. She was very behind compared to the rest of the kids, but she was always very helpful to the other children, me, and the staff. I had a soft spot for her and she ended up being one of my favorites. Teachers will often say they don't have favorites, but that's a lie. A couple years later I was moved to 5th grade and I had her again, she was struggling a lot by this time, but still, I never gave up on her, and she never gave up either. Later, when she was in 8th grade, I was moved to middle school, and once again, I had her again. By this time her mom's lifestyle had had an influence. She always wore red, threw up gang signs, and used to get into a lot of fights at school. One thing that was different was she had caught up academically with the rest of her peers, and actually even surpassed many of them. She used to come by after school and started seeing me as a mentor, and we had a connection, as I too was heavily involved with gangs in my teens and early 20s. When she moved on to high school, she kept in touch, her high school was across the street and she used to come by after school all the time to check in. She eventually got involved in student body, became the senior class president, and was on the honor roll all 4 years. She got accepted into all 8 colleges she applied for. She is currently on a full ride scholarship at Stanford University and plans to continue with graduate school. She is very involved with the community too. She is currently 20 and a waitress but is planning on doing big things, and I know she will. I'm so proud of her.

Kindergarten teacher called my sister a loser that won’t amount to anything in life. So far, she’s done a tour in Afghanistan, wife, EMT and now is in the SWAT team... I think she amounted to some pretty bada** stuff

The student whose social skills were non existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is in college taking nuclear physics. I swear he was easily like 3 grades behind when I knew him in primary/junior grades (Canada).

Not me but know a guy, lovely quiet chap who lived to draw. Teacher said his work was no good. Went on to be a senior effects artist and later works for a major computer games company and can of course, draw.

I guess my mom might count since she's worked at the elementary school I attended since 1993, but she recently told me about one of my elementary school classmates. I was actually pretty good friends with him, but I thought he was a bit slow? And apparently, he had been evaluated for learning disorders several times in early grade school. He apparently just started a surgery fellowship at a prestigious hospital in Philadelphia.

He definitely worked very hard in grade school and middle school, and now that I look back, he definitely sought out the "smart kids" in class and tried to befriend them and see how they thought.

I had a student in 3rd grade who was sweet, kind, and goofy, but the typical never-do-homework, mediocre-to-poor grades type at the time. When I moved up to teaching middle school and had him again in 6th grade, little had changed—I liked him as a person quite a lot, but academically and effort-wise he was a solid Meh C/D student.

Fast forward a decade or so: I had to retire from the classroom early and a bit abruptly due to a health crisis, resulting brain surgery, and the aftermath. This devastated me. At the time, I posted about how much I missed teaching and my heartbreak over it on my Facebook page. This now adult student, who had added me as a friend but rarely to never posted anything anywhere on FB, commented the most heartwarming words about what an inspiration I’d been and how he felt I’d started him on the path that led him to a degree in chemical engineering from a major university. He was the first in his family to go to college, nonetheless earn a degree.

His kind and generous words made me weep, and his academic success left me stunned. If you had asked me back when he was in 3rd or 6th grade which student would be the one to earn a degree in engineering, I think I would have gone through 2/3 of the class before I’d have even thought of him.

Imagine getting a ticket for a busted brake light from your former student whom you thought was going to be a criminal someday.

I had to be tutored for reading during elementary school. The same teacher came to my house after school a few times a week to help me. Years later, my mom ran into her, and she asked how I was doing. She was so incredibly happy and shocked to hear I was an English major applying to Library Science graduate programs.

I was voted most likely to burn a book, ended up writing one

My mom was an elementary school teacher and student taught under my old second grade teacher. sometimes my mom would get information from my brother and I about what everyone from our class got up to and gossip to other teachers.

There were two cases that always surprised people.

the overweight, smelly kid who was bullied, socially awkward, obsessed with trains, and didn't really have friends joined the Civil Air Patrol and later became an airline pilot.

the shy, socially awkward, goodie two shoes kid with an IEP a mile long became a plasma physicist and one of their projects actually made it onto the perseverance mars probe. They also came out as transgender and transitioned to female. Nobody thought the kid would make it that far because of her learning disabilities, but turns out she outdid most of the "gifted" kids. Also turns out her social awkwardness was entirely because she was trying to act like a boy and just... wasn't very good at it. Once you let her just be one of the girls she was suddenly a lot more socially eloquent and confident.

My brother was tutored by an elementary school teacher and he was a complete mess of a student as a kid. She was helping him transition from a top prep school to public school because the preP school didn’t feel he would ever amount to much in their care. She tried several methods to keep him organized and help his reading skills to no avail. She continuously checked in with his teacher (worked at the same school) to see his progress and constantly had to talk to him on behalf of the teacher. Everyone loved him, he was just an utter mess.

We ran into her a year ago and got to tell her that he got a full ride to law school at an Ivy League school. Blew her mind, but proof that some kids thrive in different learning environment. Terrible through traditional school but when he got to college, he thrived because of breaks between classes, time to study, picked his classes which were focused then trying to cover a thousand topics in a year, and got to know his teachers.

Thank goodness for my parents holding out hope all those years ha ha

I had severe depression and anxiety among other things, stopped going to school at around 13 and fully dropped/tested out at maybe 16? I started going to community college at 17, and at 21 I'm finally transferring to a really good university. I have a 3.7 GPA and am majoring in cell and molecular biology!

I had a severe speech impediment in elementary school to the point where teachers would foist me off in the reading room (for kids with learning impairments and difficulty reading to get extra assistance) during class despite the fact that I was writing and reading at a very high level.

The only person who vouched for me was my speech teacher. I met with her 3x a week during elementary school, she allowed me to stay in her classroom during lunch when they forced us to go to the playground and it was 5 degrees out, she gave me work to do over the summer so I could get to a point where I could actually say my name properly which had been my only goal.

She encouraged me to tell my fifth grade teacher that I was reading at a higher level than he suspected, and, buoyed by her confidence in me, I did it and was moved to the highest reading group. I just told my parents this story earlier this year and they were so angry I had been ashamed to share, but grateful I had an adult vouching for me.

I ended up ‘graduating’ speech in fifth grade after years of working with her and she was so proud. She had changed my life and given me the gift of speech. She believed in me when other teaching professionals simply heard me talk and assumed that it was easiest to assume I was a slow learner.

I am now the communications director for a government official in my country. I messaged her on Facebook when I first got my job to tell her that I wouldn’t be where I am without her. She remembered me (of course, she said - I wouldn’t let her forget me) and she couldn’t be more proud. She is one of my biggest online cheerleaders and I couldn’t be more grateful for her work... I quite literally would not be where I am without her.

Family moved to Canada when I was 11. Spoke no English and got picked on in my first year (gr 6). In gr 7 and 8 I failed all science and history tests due to language but teachers just gave me enough marks to move on to the next grade. I spent more time studying and with encouragement of my gr 11 chemistry teacher I believed in myself. By end of high school, I was ranked top 1% in Canada in math, chemistry and physics competitions. This led me to great school and a great career so far.

Thank you Ms. Harpell!

Not me, but a kid who used to be my friend...

He was studios. He got good grades. Teachers loved him. He was well behaved. He wasnt bullied. He didnt bully other kids. He had a lot of friends. He wasnt popular, but he wasnt unpopular. He was definitely more popular than me though. No one had a problem with him. Since he got good grades his parents let him do whatever he wanted. They bought him whatever he wanted. He had the latest video games and consoles as they came out. We loved sleeping over his house because we could stay up all night, jump on the trampoline at 2 in the morning, and we didnt even have to sneak out for mischief. We could just walk out the door. Anyways, he moved in 8th grade. I was sad.

A couple years back someone sends me a facebook message of a local article. This guy stabbed someone 23 times and is awaiting a murder trial. I have no clue where his life took a hard left turn, but it did clearly.

My mom has been a teacher for the past 25+ years. There was one student in particular that stood out.

This kid was insanely smart. In high school, perfect grades, he also got scholarships on scholarships plus full ride to almost any college he wanted. I think he wanted to be a physicist or engineer for nasa. After high school he headed off to college and fell off of everyone's radar for a few a while.

We learned a few years later what happened. The extreme pressure to always be the best ended up getting to him. Everyone in his life understandably had super high expectations for him, but he couldn't handle it. He had a massive mental breakdown and ended up dropping out of college and went to work in some chain fast food place.

I didn't know him personally, and only met him in passing, but even I was sad. Such a brilliant mind, someone who had a lot of potential, reduced to a tiny fraction of himself. It's been several years since then, and I hope he is doing better.

Not mine but my mom's story: she used to teach the second grade and there was a kid who was ruthlessly bullied because he had another finger on his hand, he didn't come from a very good background and had to work jobs in the middle of school for his family (this is pretty common for low income families in India), he was shouted at alot by the principal as he missed like half of the school so my mom told him to come to our house so she could tutor him every few days. He's now studying mechanical engineering att IIT (very prestigious university in India) and reached to my mom on Facebook and thanked her.