Can my teacher call me pathetic?

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That's disgusting behaviour from your teacher. It's the sort of thing where if you told your head of year about it then things could progress.

You or your work is not pathetic. As far as I'm concerned a teacher should never respond to a learner like that. Most professionals would agree with this.

Cheese and rice! When I'm working as a teacher I'm gonna be awesome. It's sad that so many teachers think it's ok to be rude and discouraging when the very point of their job role is to be the opposite of that.

Reply 21

Nettled

Original post by beautifulbigmacs

Lol for all we know the h/w could have been scribbled on a shabby piece of paper with illegible handwriting. If that's the case then OP deserved it.

Reply 22

Talon

Original post by the bear

your teacher should focus on the positive aspects of your work.

Negative feedback is essential if improvements are to be made. There is probably something good about most pieces of work that would otherwise be classified as sub standard. Constant praise will just lead to no effort on the part of the person being praised to improve as they will assume they are doing well.

it is after all his poor teaching which is reflected in the quality of this piece of work.

Or pure lack of effort on the part of the student.

Again - the teacher never called the student pathetic - it was the work.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 23

the bear

Original post by Talon

It is very disempowering for Emily to be faced with this type of feedback from an adult

smh

Reply 24

Dopesmoker

Original post by fairlyemily

I did a piece of homework (admittedly, not to a very high standard but passable) and when I got it back my teacher had written that it was pathetic! He was quite rude to me and I feel like it was a personal attack. Is he allowed to say this? Do you think it's right?

lol at OP's victim complex. See this all the time.

I think you should devote more energy into worrying about how to improve your poor performance, than your teachers comment.

Reply 25

Talon

Original post by the bear

It is very disempowering for Emily to be faced with this type of feedback from an adult

smh

Unfortunately, out in the real world, you do not get positive feedback for poor work.

Reply 26

beautifulbigmacs

Some harsh comments here.

As an educated person working in the field, a teacher whose vocabulary can not extend beyond such an inappropriate comment on someone's work is in the wrong job. There are so many other more appropriate ways that the teacher could have used to make their point more constructively and on this basis, their use of the word pathetic is unacceptable.

Reply 27

rileystringer1

Original post by beautifulbigmacs

It depends though, if someone is being lazy and clearly not putting any effort into their work and you keep saying "that's good but you could try harder", that's still positively reinforcing them. If a good student produces a poor standard of work as a one-off then it shouldn't be done but sometimes you need to hit the message home!

Reply 28

College_Dropout

Well, you are quite admittedly saying your attempt was pathetic.

Reply 29

The Empire Odyssey

He called your work pathetic. Not yourself pathetic, so stop crying over it.

If you know your work is "passable" by your standards, then by his teaching/professional standards it's deemed as "pathetic". Usually when we say the word "pathetic" it often means "you can do better, so why is this so crap?".

Use this opportunity to not be lazy. If you are struggling talk to that teacher. If you feel uncomfortable speaking to him, then speak to a high-attaining peer in the same class as you to get some tips.

Reply 30

emiloujess

Any chance they could have been joking/sarcastic? My teacher gave me back my mock and her only comment was that it was 'not too shabby' (it was a B...)

Reply 31

sheikh420

Original post by fairlyemily

Some teachers are like that. They will always be mean to you no matter how nice you're to them. I had a Chemistry teacher who used to get irritated every time I asked a question. (Even if my questions made more sense than most of the other students' questions.)

To answer your question, he can call it 'pathetic' if it is not up to the mark. Don't feel shamed just try to do better next time. :biggrin:

Reply 32

lig1729

Original post by fairlyemily

GTFU

Reply 33

ComputerMaths97

Original post by beautifulbigmacs

Pathetic = You can do better, why did you not?

In what world is that "disgusting behaviour"???

Original post by beautifulbigmacs

He hardly did anything wrong but point out someone needs to put more effort into their homework.

My guess is you're one of them overprotected kids.

Reply 34

CoronationStreet

Maybe he didnt call you pathetic but the piece of homework

Reply 35

Cll_ws

I had my A-level Maths teacher pull me out of class once to tell me that "if he was a betting man, he'd bet that I was going to fail his class", and that "there are students in this class with far worse grades than yours, but I see far more potential in them". I still don't believe it was attempt to motivate me.

But I still treasure the look on his face when I came out with a really decent grade... he didn't even attempt to fake happiness. Whilst i'm not against a bit of tough love from teachers, some are just ********s.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 36

beautifulbigmacs

Original post by ComputerMaths97

Pathetic = You can do better, why did you not?

In what world is that "disgusting behaviour"???

He hardly did anything wrong but point out someone needs to put more effort into their homework.

My guess is you're one of them overprotected kids.

Not quite Sherlock. I actually come from a background where comments like this were thrown about liberally and nobody cared to do anything about it. It had a substantial effect on my self esteem and looking back there was no need for it at all.

Regardless of my personal stance on it, I don't think many of the teachers peers would have been impressed with his choice of words and rightly so.

Reply 37

beautifulbigmacs

Original post by Cll_ws

I had my A-level Maths teacher pull me out of class once to tell me that "if he was a betting man, he'd bet that I was going to fail his class", and that "there are students in this class with far worse grades than yours, but I see far more potential in them". I still don't believe it was attempt to motivate me.

But I still treasure the look on his when I came out with a really decent grade... he didn't even attempt to fake happiness. Whilst i'm not against a bit of tough love from teachers, some are just ********s.

Good on you. I am still affected by the way I was made to feel about myself in sixth form. Some teachers are absolutely one hundred per cent not fit to teach. It infuriates me that the very people who are employed to help young people just go ahead and do the extreme opposite.

Reply 38

Kali.waltz

Almost that same incident happened to me and I feel the same way, teachers should always treat their students with respect and I don’t think my teacher did.