Bullied by a Role Model

Posted in Standards and EvaluationStudentsTeaching on Dec 20, 2009 - 05:00 PM

I write today from my heart, which, like my head is very confused and upset. I have been at my new school for nearly three months and I am happy to report I have not once been bullied, or teased -- until today. We all went through getting teased when we were children, and I have to admit I even did my fair share of teasing when I was young too, but it's an easy thing to fix. When you're teased as a child, you run to your teacher for comfort and advice. The scary thing is, this time the bully was my teacher.

It was the end of the day and I was walking with my friend to basketball practice. My teacher stood in the hall. I called to him, "So, did I get an A on that assignment?" in a joking tone. You see, we had to create these books for our social studies class, and I was laughing about how long mine had taken me to complete.

My teacher called back, "I don't know, could you handle it if your friend did better than you on that assignment?"

I assumed he was joking, at first. So I tried to go with it, but it got worse. He went on to say that I said -- and he "quoted me" -- that I came from a hip school where there were no grades, and I went from that to being what he called a "grade grabber," which apparently is someone who is obsessed with grades. I was being made fun of for doing well in school. My teacher, my mentor, was embarrassing me in front of my new friend. I couldn't believe it.

I didn't know what my friend was smiling at until I saw another one of my teachers coming up behind us. She smiled and said, "Oh my, what's going on here?" I was trying my best to explain to my teacher I was trying to be a good student, and thought that grades mattered.

My English teacher turned to my other teacher and said, "What is she talking about?" and he just said, "I have no idea."

It didn't take long for my English teacher to join in, though. She added, "Well, you are kind of a grade grabber." She then did an impersonation of my voice: "Oh if I correct this, will I get an A then?" I was mortified.

Since then I have been much less outspoken towards my teachers. I have kept my head down and just done my work, but my question here is, why? I have never been teased by a teacher before. They are our role models. What does that show us? I felt ganged up on, for being interested in school. I felt ashamed, sad and embarrassed. I simply don't know what to do with it. I try to analyze what they were saying, convincing myself that I heard incorrectly.

I am an academically driven student. I was made fun of by the people I admire, for being interested in what they teach. I am not trying to complain -- I still find what they teach interesting. But I am now almost scared to succeed. I don't want to be that person who has no life but school. How do I prove that, without either failing their class or getting into another conversation with them? Which now I am hesitant to do.

Tags for this entry:
grades, achievement, success, bullying, role modeling, fear

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