True stories

Teacher

I come from a family without much in the way of money.

When a new school year started, I would get 4 shirts and 2 pants (maybe a pair of shorts if they were on sale) which I would mix and match as much as possible for the entire year. If I grew out of my clothes or if they got damaged at all, I would not get replacements.

My freshman year of high school I got assigned to the worst teacher I've ever had. Incredibly strict, always poking fun at the students, and throwing out passive aggressive comments vaguely disguised as 'jokes'. In his class he had a policy where every Wednesday, you could dress as professionally as possible in order to get a few extra credit points. I participated as often as I could, since I could not keep my grade up no matter how hard I tried. Nothing I did seemed to be good enough for this man.

One Wednesday, I wore a black and white floral shirt, black slacks, and sandals (90% of the outfit was borrowed from my mother's closet, since that's all I had). The teacher pulled me aside and spent a full 10 minutes complaining about the sandals I was wearing (didn't even bother to take me out into the hall, just had me standing there at his desk in front of everyone). When I quietly told him "It's all I have" he responded with "That's no excuse" and refused to give me extra credit. He then told me he would continue refusing to give me extra credit until I wore different shoes.

So, the next Wednesday I came in with the only other pair of shoes I owned; a ratty pair of sneakers practically falling apart beneath me. He commented on the shoes and, again, I told him "This is all I have". We argued for a bit before he sent me back to my desk.

I went home and spoke to my mother (who had very recently become disabled at the time, and was going through a horrible depression), I mentioned what the teacher did and for the first time in a year I was her move with a little more life and vigor. She raised hell at the school, and that teacher received a strike (he apparently had multiple, but was " such a good teacher" that the school refused to fire him).

He never commented on my shoes again.