While good professors and teachers become an inspiration you carry within you throughout your life, toxic professors are just as common. Sadly, they make the academic environment poisonous with their words and actions.
From the sense of entitlement and the feeling that they are above the rules to offensive behavior, there are many ways they wreak havoc on your student life. What makes it particularly challenging to deal with difficult educators is that they can be found in every field and at every level of academia, from adjuncts to full professors. And their words carry a lot of weight.
But there seem to be red flags that instantly scream that you would be better off changing the class rather than staying in. “What are some red flags for teachers that scream ‘drop this class immediately?’” someone asked on Ask Reddit, and people started sharing endless real-life experiences. Below we wrapped up some of the most tell-tale signs.
#1
I had a teacher that I loved but everyone hated.
my economics teacher was an absolute madman.
first day of econ-
Madman- " FIRST RULE!.. ANY AND ALL CELLPHONES ARE TO REMAIN OFF!. IF I SEE YOU USING THEM, I WILL THROW THEM OUT THE DOOR!"
**cellphone rings**
*its his*
**madman looks at class.. grabs cellphone and throws it out the door**
Madman- " didn't need to talk to my wife anyway! "
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168points
#2
WHEN THEY READ THE POWERPOINTS WORD FOR WORD. I.CAN.DO.THAT.AT.HOME. TEACH PLS.
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112points
#3
"These books are required for the class. I wasn't able to get the revision into the bookstore in time, so the only place you can get them is from me directly or from my website. I will warn you, if you don't buy the books you won't get the login information to be able to take the final, which is 90% of your grade."
"Oh, and no, I can't accept financial aid for them, but it's only $250 so it's not a big deal."
Never seen an entire class get up 5 minutes in and leave before.
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105points
Bored Panda reached out to marketing expert and book author Alex Wong who is better known as the “Hijack” Copywriter. Wong has been on a mission to help small and corporate businesses “hijack” their client’s minds and help them to grow their businesses and sales.
When asked whether he had a toxic teacher, Wong confirmed that he has had a few bad teachers. “Being so young, I didn’t know how to deal with the situation. One of the teachers I had was for an elective in high school, French. I should have just chosen another course since it wasn't worth the misery,” he recounted.
Another teacher Wong had was for a required course in college so this option would have ben much more difficult. “For both situations, I didn’t say anything and I just tried my best to improve as a student.”
#4
Pride in the difficulty of their course.
If everyone fails, it's not for an inability to learn, but for an inability to teach.
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97points
#5
No one will get an A in this course because (insert some philosophical highbrow b******t answer)
95points
#6
Had a drawing professor that put a stack of pre-signed withdrawal forms on his desk. Told us to grab one when we were ready.
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92points
Having a bad teacher is very damaging to any young student. Wong argues that having a good or bad teacher can mean the difference between thriving or failing a class. “It also negatively impacts your self-esteem and desire to learn. You start wondering if there is anything wrong with you. After surviving the year with my French teacher, I never studied French again.”
But when it comes to education and academia, Wong thinks the problem is bigger than bad teachers. “I believe the entire system needs to be overhauled and improved. Because in the end, who hires these bad teachers and allows them to continue to teach students every year?”
#7
Professor claimed she didn’t allow people to step out of class to use the bathroom. “You’re all adults, not children, you can hold it.” Exactly lady. We’re adults, we paid to be here, and adults have to use the bathroom.
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87points
#8
Personal experience, I literally dropped 4 classes my sophomore year ....
Prior to starting the classes the disability department contacted all of my teachers to tell them that I am deaf and that I would need some form of written/typed paper to follow along with lectures.
"Im completely deaf ....."
"sit closer, i cant give you special treatment"
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82points
#9
Think that their students should only focus on this particular class for the upcoming semester as if they should spend all their time on it
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69points
“The problem is that even if you do speak out, the board or department may not take your concerns seriously and end up doing nothing. Even worse, the teacher often finds out and ends up taking it out on you in the end. I ended up dropping out of a college program because it was so poorly run,” Wong told us.
The marketing expert argues that there has to be some kind of system in place where both teachers and students are supported and can feel comfortable speaking out if any issues arise in the classroom without fear of retaliation.
#10
"No laptops, all code will be handwritten."
Yes that really happened.
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68points
#11
Over the winter break of my freshman year I was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease in my knees which meant I had to use crutches for a while (then eventually a wheelchair for a time). I was late to my philosophy 101 class (due to adjusting to my newfound limitations). I apologized for my tardiness and tried to find my seat without making a fuss. As I was making my way across the classroom my philosophy teacher remarked “everyone, let’s just patiently wait for the cripple here to get to his seat.” It’s possible she had believed I was one of several skiing injuries that the student body had incurred over winter break, but either way after that first day I never came back to that class.
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68points
#12
Saw a course at my college called "Digital Media and American Culture." Sounds neat, I thought, I'll go to a lecture during the shopping period. The professor is 10 minutes late, an 80-year-old man, who gets up and literally asks a student in the front to tell him how many Facebook friends she has and then "how many REAL friends do you have?!" Was flabbergasted when he asked if anyone in the classroom had read "1984" and most of the class raised their hands. He was 100% convinced that millennials never pick up books anymore.
Yeah, no.
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62points
#13
When I was 18 I took a Beauty Therapy and Science class. One of the units we had was business studies, I had previously sat an A Level in business so I still had notes and books left over.
We didn't have the usual business teacher because she was signed off sick (Cancer I believe) so instead of getting a qualified teacher in, the department bought in a beauty salon manager who was a b***h. Knew nothing about teaching but thought she knew everything about business.
First class we have, she's doing the "Introduce yourself" thing, then she asks "Who in this class is a Leo?" I raise my hand and its only me .... "Oh because in my star signs I ALWAYS clash with Leos. Sorry". Ok so we have a crazy b***h, the class is sat in a stunned silence as I simply say "Ok cool"
The time comes to write the assignment for the class and me being savvy I used my old business class notes and books and hand it in with the biggest smile on my face.
Results day. Everyone passes with high marks all except me. She has me up in front of my head tutor for "Plagerism" and "She's clearly copied and pasted all of this from the internet" my head tutor explained that "Shakenshake has sat a A-level in business so she should know what she's talking about"
My head tutor re-marked my paper and passed it with a high merit. I later told her about what was said, regarding the star signs and how I felt attacked due to some insignificant fact about my birth sign.
Next lesson she announces she's "Leaving due to my teaching methods being questioned and having a complaint" whilst glaring at me, the rest of the class was relieved.
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55points
#14
My tenured organic chem professor asked, 'Any questions?' and 50 hands went up. He then said, 'It's a fairly simple concept, so you'll get there. Let's move on.
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54points
#15
I once had a professor say "you get 2 absences this semester. More than 2 and you fail. It doesn't matter what the excuse is."
Sorry, with older relatives who were sick and dying... and not being a psychic myself to know whether or not I'd get sick or if I'd forget to set an alarm, or any number of unforseable things... that level of rigidity and unwillingness to compromise isn't worth it.
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48points
#16
In our first lecture, my professor for Intro to Communications said, 'I don't believe in the artificially inflated grading system we are experiencing, so I grade on a strict bell curve. There are 25 people in this class, so no matter how well everyone does, some of you are getting an F.' You may not care about that inflated grading system, but the job market and grad schools certainly do
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40points
#17
2-hour, in-class, pre-recorded PowerPoint lectures from 2008, 'because it saves time for me, and please don't ask questions until after the end of my PowerPoint'.
This was in 2017.
37points
#18
Back when I started college, I got straight A+s in a class, but when I went to check on my overall grade, I had a B+, found it odd and went to question my teacher about it, he said that he dropped down my grade because the class was a bit of a pain in the a*s (he didn't use those exact words, but thats what he meant)
Then I questioned him again about my posture, asking if I did anything wrong, or disturbed class or whatever, he promptly said I didn't and that I was a great student, which made me ask again "Why is grade lower then", he told the same excuse from above, then I asked if he was planning on changing my grade at all, since I had only As, and he promply said he wasn't going to change.
Fast forward a few days, I ended up filing a complaint about him and his method of grading students, and the college made him change my grade. After that he approached me and said something like "Hey u/Phorcyss you didn't have to file a complaint about me, I was gonna fix you grade" yada yada.
36points
#19
I had a professor that in hindsight I really should have dropped. It was a Western Civilization History class, and the first day the entirety of the class he spent talking about how he missed his old job teaching in Europe because "American students are more lazy and incapable of getting as high of grades." Then he showed intro YouTube videos from his personal laptop hooked to a projector and all of the "Recommend" videos all had titles like "grinding with thong", "sexy college babe grinding", etc.
I thought he was just eccentric, but the guy was easily the worst teacher I ever had. He would expect you to totally memorize all the chapter-- he would quiz on material that didn't matter for concepts. (Ie: What was the name of Caesar's second cousin?) When the information would be found in a huge family tree. The only students in the class with A's were women, and he would grade their quizzes differently and be MUCH more lenient. (The students compared quiz results.) Someone in class called him out and he said that he was tired of teaching Americans and doesn't get paid enough. (Literally)
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34points
#20
Gives a test on the first day that WILL be counted against you. Had one of my mathematics teachers do this.
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32points