TEACHERS????( Any double lives?)

One of my friends started teaching a couple years back, and according to him, "teachers are the biggest drunks." They're like everyone else.

Well, I'm sure not all teachers are hopeless alcoholics, but I'm also sure some of them drink. But no, I don't think they owe you an explanation of what they do during their free time. As for their access to students' lives, aren't there limits to what they know about you, too? I sure hope so!

Anyhow, you might be suprised at how dull their lives are, too. It's true--I know a few...

I don't really expect an explaination but I just think that they shouldn't be pissed off at their studens for no reason and take whatever personal problems they have out on us. If we aren't supposed to know, don't bring your personal problems to work.

Interesting comments posed by the question. I am figuring, but may be wrong, that when you say 'student' in this context you are meaning elementary school through high school? My answer is based on that, so excuse me if I don't have it right.

As adults entrusted with caretaking, caregiving and nuturing minors we must divide our personal interests from those that interfere negatively or legally with the given directives in teaching. The subject matter and curriculum is the priority. Guidance necessitates some boundaries and distance: to do otherwise is dabbling in areas the public and parents do not wish teachers to tread. What does it matter if your teacher has vices or political opinions or wildly contrasting personal lives as long as the instruction is responsible and sound? To venture into personal life outside of the classroom is to invite community standards and values to govern suitability of a teacher to teach. Such intrusion into private life is still battled by gays, women, and some of different religions and ethnicity, let alone politics and religion as issues!~

Then again, he is a friend of mine.

I'm 18 and a senior in High School. I refuse to be compared to someone in elemetary school b/c the standards of "care" for a kindergarden teacher passing out bandaids and kissin boo boos of neive (my infamous spelling errors LoL) children is very different from that of teachers to seniors in high school who are already part of the "real world" and are clairvoyant enough to know the difference b/w avg. monday morning grumpyness and hangovers.

Well, I certainly agree, gvapid, that teachers shouldn't take it out on their students if they're in a bad mood. Bosses shouldn't either. In fact, no people in power should take it out on those beneath them.

Right you are!

Cobalt- don't you think that no matter how hard one might try, their facade may crack a bit and leak into their work lives? I think my curiosity is mainly b/c I hear my teachers (all 4 of them) telling me that teacher's are people too when they have tests that have been ungraded for weeks..etc. How can I treat them like people when they don't act like it?

gvapid, I totally agree with that last point. I think consistency is important, and professionalism is important, and they are totally opening themselves up to this kind of criticism if they use lines like that about delays in getting papers back. (I am not currently but have been a teacher.)

When I look back at how hopelessly naive I was
both as a kid in school, and as a parent assuming
that the vast majority of teachers were "good
teachers" and decent people ... I could cry.
How absurd. Most of the teachers I had in
school were grouchy old women, who had so
little interest in the subjects they taught that
it was contagious. Most of the professors I
had in college were FAR more interested in
their research and coming to class to lecture
to a bunch of students was an inconvenience.
They frequently were so lazy as to send in
their grad students to hold "their" lecture.
When my daughters were in school, I was such
a young mother, and naive, that I assumed their
teachers were decent, intelligent & normal people.
In the MANY years from then to now; I have had
an eyeful. Getting to know a few teachers extremely
well has taught me some lessons about our
educational system that make me want to gag.
These people are not even all teaching in any
proven systematic way. There are those who
favor whole language and those who favor
phonics. What do these terms mean? Beats
me, but I know enough to know that some of
these kids learn how to read while a good many
others do not. I once had a professor - and
a married professor - try to hit on me. That
was another shocker for me! They are just
ordinary people - some of them are okay,
some are not and some are even downright
dangerous for your kids to be around.

gvapid - thanks for clarifying your status as a student. I can't always tell how old the posters are and I felt I had to include all students who are legally minors in my response. If you are 18 already, you personally may be more disgruntled than those under 18 because you still have to go by the "rules of conduct" necessary for teacher - student relations. (Hope you like this term better than the other terms)

It does not appear that your teachers are behaving professionally if they are making such excuses. Then, to have obvious hangovers hindering your relationships with your teachers - that really is a shame. In general teachers should not "take out" their problems in anyway upon their students. This may be easier or harder for each particular teacher to deal with. Personally I was the type of student who could care less if such problems were known to me or not. Not my problem. And I wasn't interested in the personal lives of my teachers. I imagine it is different for everyone when they are students prior to college. As Babsatamelia said, the college professors are a whole other story and challenge!

double lives of teachers
babsatamelia and gvapid,


I am currently a practicing H.S. teacher, and yes, I do live double life, perhaps quadruple. I'm a husband and father, an amateur lumber jack, a fisherman and of course, I love having a few beers - sometimes too many.
Please understand that I'm a human being first.

I do, however, do everything that I can to maintain composure and presence, acting fairly and dilligently in interactions with my students.

It upsets me to here that your teachers are tardy with their marking and that you suspect that this may be due to alcoholism or drug use, but it doesn't surprise me. Teaching can be a very stressful profession, often people get into it for the wrong reasons, and they go into a tailspin. Their personal failures become part of their professional performance. This is wrong, for as a teacher, you are a professional, and must behave as such.

I personally know a grade 6 teacher that drinks at the pub every weekend until 2am.She picks up younger guys and bellows at the moon on her way home from a drunken binge. This must affect her performance as a teacher, and I have no more sympathy for her than you. Straighten out your life or get out of the profession!

One of our primary roles as teachers is to be role models for our students. What sort of role model behaves in this fashion?

Anyway, to get off this rant, my primary point is that although teachers are human beings like everyone else, we have a professional oath and code of ethics. These obligations should not be over looked or treated lightly. There are good teachers and bad teachers. The bad ones are bad because they are self centered and unhappy, and the good teachers focus on the best interests of their students and enjoy what they do. My personal philosophy is to treat students with respect, humility, and kindness.

When this philosophy is followed, you can afford to have a bad day once in a while.

Here's a bit of advice, sent the teachers that have wronged you a letter. Keep it civil and outline their shortcomings and how they made you feel. You'd be suprised how seriously they will take it. But please, if you do, write a good teacher a letter as well. Give them some praise, for being a good teacher is not an easy job (I think).

I'm not a teacher but I've dated a few, and had three close friends who are teachers.

1) Teachers are definitely very human, struggling with weaknesses, problems, and drama just like everyone else.

2) We pay our teachers next to nothing, yet expect miraculously long hours and hard work from them. We often treat them abusively and negatively, then expect them to help raise our children in a healthy manner. With all those demands, the only people who stick with it are either super-dedicated struggling through a labor of love, or somewhat incompetent, unable to get a better paying job anywhere else. If anyone deserves a little slack, encouragement and forgiveness it's a teacher. It's the system of education that creates such an situation.

3) The teachers I've hung out with are constantly worried about their public reputation. If just one or two parents see them doing something odd around town, they complain to the school, their reputation is tarnished, and they can easily be fired just for being controversial. I couldn't even kiss my date in public(!) because it might get back to the school board! Do you know any job that is so highly political -- with dozens of parents gossipping, whining, judging, and campaigning?

I only hope we can improve the system itself, that creates such an outrageous and tense situation for teachers, students, and parents. Hang in there!

When I was a senior in high school - not so long ago, really - I was in Advanced Placement Biology with only 3 other students, all of us female. Our teacher was a huge guy that looked more like a Hell's Angel than a biology teacher. He was a bouncer on the weekends and was still single, so dating.

Every monday he'd come in and we'd ask him "Hey, Jim, how did the weekend go? Did you have a date with the psycho chick again?" He'd start telling us, then eventually decide he was going into 'to much information' territory and cut the conversation.

Not only was he a fantastic teacher, but he was also a great guy. The difference is that he was truly dedicated and interested in the class, our success, and us as people. It was one of the finest classes I ever attended throughout my education, including college.

I think there is a fine line between having an adult to adult relationship with a teacher (especially at a senior high school level) and having a teacher that is just an irresponsible adult that can't do their job. Any teacher that is not prepared to teach and lets their personal problems directly affect the success of their students and the atmosphere of teaching should be removed from the classroom.

Re: TEACHERS????( Any double lives?)


I'm a teacher, and I'm neither a closet freak nor dull. True, some teachers get crabby after putting in 25 years, some have emotional problems, but most of them are fairly bright and dedicated.

It's very hard to be a 'good' teacher within the current system. Teachers are required to do an enormous amount of paperwork. That teds to eat up their time and any inspiration to be original in their teaching style. It's all about accountability on paper, what they're allowed to do within the priorities of the school district. Pretty boring for teachers, and ultimately kids.

about the streses of being a teacher:


A teacher was trying to persuade the students to buy a copy of the group class picture.

"Just think of how nice it will be to look at it when you are grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a doctor', or, 'That's Michael. He's a doctor.'

A small voice at the back of the room rang out:"And there's the teacher. She's dead"

gvapid, I think you are a smart and perceptive kid. Just remember that it is some teachers, not all teachers that forget their professional duties to the students. Part of teaching is leaving your crap at home and recognizing the needs of the students you teach. Is it stressful? Hell yeah, but the good ones you always remember. I had some great teachers both in high school and university, and some bad ones. There was one French teacher we suspected to be a so one morning we searched her purse and found a mickey of vodka. Ha, well, she was French....another teacher kept a teddy bear on her desk at all times. One day we hung it from the pull-down movie screen. A friend of mine might just still have a pic of that....on the other hand, we had a Biology teacher who was way cool. He had a ruler, on one side was written 'God', on the other 'King' and he said nobody could borrow the ruler or mess with it, heh. This is how he taught us about hydrogen bonds: "Okay, let's say (name deleted) sitting over there being a smartass is a water molecule. Well, look at him, he's weak. Anyone here in this class could beat the crap out of him. Now, the thing is, I see he has some friends here, who would probably be willing to back him up in a fight. So let's assume his friends are also weak, and water molecules. They decide to form a bond. A bully comes along, and all of a sudden, it's not just weak (name deleted), but a whole gang of water molecules. That's what hydrogen bonding is all about." I paraphrase, but that was the gist of it. He totally reminded me of Red on That 70's Show, and was one of my favorite teachers.

We all probably lead multiple lives similar to the ones miikyaapii describes, but teachers have to be so careful about how they'll be perceived while they're out there in the world. That's probably why so many live some distance from the schools they teach in.

I have a lot of respect for the teachers in this thread and many of the ones I had in school many years ago. Some I know have died by now, but they're not forgotten. What more can any of us hope for decades from now?

Unfortunately it's fashionable to think teachers are incompetant, and blame them for a lot of things over which they have no control. Anyhow, just for another laugh at the expense of teachers:

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."

"Yes" the class said.

"Then why is it that while I'm standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A little boy shouted, "Because your feet ain't empty!"