Fifth Grade Teacher
She remembered her teacher jerked her arm hard to teach her to square dance.
She remembered her teacher made her run and run when she could not breathe.
She remembered her teacher embarrassed her in front of the whole class.
She remembered her teacher's hateful glare and how she was so afraid.
She remembered how the teacher smiled if there was an adult in view.
Today she remembers this was the only teacher she really hated.
This is written for dVerse, where Gay is having us write "American Sentences." Each sentence has 17 syllables.
Ouch! How sad that this teacher was so mean! I am afraid a lot of students have come across at least one of those. In my own school, the mean one was a PE teacher who used to make fun of people's physical appearance.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mean teacher ~ She doesn't deserve to be called one ~
ReplyDeleteThere is always one such teacher. I could see her face... and I do want to stick her photo on the dartboard and... :-) I am kidding but you have well penned an experience of every student's life.
ReplyDelete-HA
I had a teacher in first grader that this reminds me off... fortunately I got to switch school...
ReplyDeleteWow, Mary - that leaves a mark in a very big way - very strong write - K
ReplyDeleteOooo, so strong. Had one of this kind of teacher myself, just once.
ReplyDeletewow. tyranny and cruelty deftly penned ~
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ReplyDeleteIsn't it odd that as any of us think back on the many teachers we've had in our life, it is the sad mean cowardly ones, plus the inept dim absurd ones, who seem to overshadow those very few great ones; yet the latter were the ones that drove me to graduate school and Special Ed; nice job here, Mary.
ReplyDeleteArgh, a mean teacher, so clearly captured.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting concept--American sentences with 17 syllables. (I wonder who decides these things!) Sounds like a nightmare teacher and sad that she remembers.
ReplyDeleteI think I was lucky not to have a teacher that treated me like that. I remember the best teachers (and one of them is a friend's dad, who I still want to call 'Mr.......' - and I'm in my forties!). Yes, this is how it seems to be for some - at least with adulthood comes the understanding.
ReplyDeleteWonderful--all simply stated so the emotion is in the reader and not on the page. Inside I am jumping up and down to tell you about the teacher who made me stand on one foot to talk to the class because I had poor posture! When I taught a class of speech communication at Wells College 30 years later, I was finally ready to laugh at that incident.
ReplyDeleteoh heck...there are teachers you never forget... either because you loved or hated them.... ugh...wouldn't have like this one as well...and we had a teacher who taught us stitching and knitting...made me hate both for a long time...ugh
ReplyDeletesounds like she had a good reason...there are several that i wonder how they or why they even got into teaching...and ones with tenure that i hope for retirement for you know...smiles.
ReplyDeleteWell captured - like the repetitions - gives it a total poem Whitmanesque in quality to the lines. I had a teacher like that - she was a nun. Hired to teach the faith, she killed it.
ReplyDeleteThank God--that if any had to be, she was the only one. Horrifying!
ReplyDeleteYou DID it, Grace! GREAT! (Or was it your teacher?)
I had a teacher like that Mary - in first school and also in secondary (high) school and how they destroyed my confidence and self-esteem, the little that I had.
ReplyDeleteSome folk are just in the wrong job.
Anna :o]
Wow Mary, what a horror! My worse teacher was also 5th grade. She looked like a witch and acted like one, too. Dreadful to still remember how they haunted us...
ReplyDeleteWell done on the challenge!
I want to say that I am sorry that this happened to you ... but I have learned in my forays into poetry on the web, that everything is not autobiographical. This was good!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a teacher needing a spitball to the forehead
ReplyDeleteIf this is real, then you and I must have had related teachers! And if it is fictional, then I can relate so well. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHow tedious. But teachers are human beings too.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Well done for sure! :-)
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of teachers like this - but thankfully few and far between. A great syllable count Mary for the American Sentences - I wonder if us Aussie's have one? ~ smiles - nicely done.
ReplyDeleteteaching is such a delicate job and why do these come to teach?....very nicely written...
ReplyDeleteI am surprised you became a teacher after this experience. My experience of teachers with a few notable exceptions of course is negative.
ReplyDeleteTeachers have great influence on our lives...well written Mary, from true experience.
ReplyDeleteStrong reactions to the subject of your post ... well done!
ReplyDeleteEven mean teacher teaches us something...become the catalyst of things to watch out for in us and others in life...
ReplyDeleteThis is strong. I like how the tension builds up as the sentences become shorter in length.
ReplyDeletemean!! and the repetition emphasizes the memory. what a novel take on the theme
ReplyDeletePowerful statements and that teacher should not be called a "teacher"..I had a few mean teachers growing up...but, you do learn a lesson or two from them sad but true..
ReplyDeletestrong memories and powerful statements. I am genuinely glad this was the only teacher that you hated. Teachers are clearly important to us way beyond the years we spend with them.
ReplyDeleteOh, excellent! You've created something new out of Ginsberg's form. Sounds like it was a poem that needed to be written, sooner or later - and it's powerful!
ReplyDeleteGosh...like how you've woven this together and I remember a teacher like that...very much like that she made school awful for one year only and then I moved. Thankfully she's the only one who was dreadful the rest were good and a few who I still think about with gratitude for their inspiration today. Very well done and a great topic for the prompt.
ReplyDeleteIt actually hurts to read this. Well done, Mary. Oh, and a pox on this wicked teacher!
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