Singer on 'The Voice': '8th grade teacher told me I'd never amount to anything'

[ProgressiveEconomist]

Trevin (sp?) Hunt, a very talented 18-year old who looks as though he could be up to 10 years older, broke into tears after Cee-Lo Green asked him what kind of help he needed to win the competition.

'Confidence has not always been my strongest suit. ... My eighth-grade teacher told me I'd never amount to anything'.

Anyone else see this?

Have you ever heard such a story about a teacher? Do you think this is rare, common, or rare except with teachers of certain 'kinds' of students? What would you do if your child brought home such a story about a teacher's discouragement of his or her aspirations?

[femmocrat]

1. I saw it.

There is no way of knowing if it is true, however.

Eighth-graders are not always the most reliable "witnesses"!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. He said it on national TV. How many contemporary witnesses would need to come forward

in order for you to believe he's not lying?

[hollysmom]

7. most reality programs are scripted.

do you still believe that Carrie Underwood was just a farm girl, or are you among the few who were aware that she was toured with her won band since 12 and that she had a record label contract before she appeared on Idol?

Just remember, it is only TV. Just recently found out that the older woman on Britains got talent was auto tuned on her TV and youtube that became a phenomena.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. His tears were scripted?

[hollysmom]

15. don't know, could be.

The only thing I know is that there is very little reality left in reality programs. Things are made up, things are twisted. Up is down and down is up.

I will take the news seriously, but not reality programs.

[femmocrat]

13. Well then, it has to be true.

I didn't say he was lying, only that he could have misinterpreted it, or forgotten some of it, or whatever....

I have taught middle school for many years and know that adolescents sometimes exaggerate or twist things teachers say for their own melodramatic reasons. Students will go home with outlandish stories of their own version of things that "happened in class". The parents get in an uproar, call the principal.... and it may have been something that never happened or was misunderstood.

I have no way of knowing if this young man is telling the truth and neither do you.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

16. Are such "misunderstandings" common? Do teachers often try to

correct them before they do years of damage to students?

[coroloro]

47. Good, bad, and ugly

You know what, I'm 32 years old - and when I was in elementary school, because I was energetic and intelligent, but also somewhat defiant, I got to see some of the worst sides of people... my teachers in particular. In first grade at Greenwood Elementary (in Olney, Maryland) my teacher, Mrs. Ellis, grabbed me by my wrist and dangled me up off the floor saying fiercley "You're an EVIL little boy, and if Mr. Seal (school counselor) knew how you REALLY were, he'd think so too!"

For people to discount what he said? That sounds crazy- I've heard of worse, and I've experienced worse- and I'm caucasian. He said it, and it sounds pretty genuine to me. I've had teachers tell me the same thing. I think it's pretty crappy for people to try to discount what he said. He has proven his teacher WRONG, and I like the idea that somewhere out there, that teacher is having their nose rubbed in their own mistake. How many other people did that teacher say similar things too- that didn't make it, possibly because of the discouragement?

There are -great- teachers out there. My mentor and dear friend, who sang at my wedding, was my high school math teacher... but there are crappy, miserable teachers out there too. And there are 'good people' and maybe 'good teachers' out there, who vent their negatively or stress on students that have a reputation so nobody will believe the student when they complain. I know- I had teachers who would act in ways to me they'd NEVER act to other students, and knew I wouldn't be believed because I had a reputation for acting out. I had English teachers who punished me for correcting their grammar, and then asking why they had a problem with it when they kept correcting mine? Shouldn't they be held accountable to their own standards?

I'd love to know who that teacher is, and I'd love to write a nice, sweet letter to her saying "Hey, good judge of character, keep up the good work!"

[valerief]

2. Thank you for your concern. nt

[HiPointDem]

4. My first employer told me the smartest thing I could do (being a woman) was to learn how to type.

I'm sure that means that all employers are sexist idiots.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. Is there anything in the OP that implies I'm trying to tarnish all teachers?

[HiPointDem]

9. yes. the fact that you consider it post-worthy.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

10. Are you saying it's commonplace? Not important to Trevin Hunt and others

who hear such discouragement? That such events have to be covered up for some reason?

[scorpiogirl]

5. I had one.

I had to take Geometry in summer school because I didn't pass in 10th grade. The teacher I had told me he had been teaching for 25 years and if I couldn't understand it, it was my fault. Not exactly the same, but along the same vein. Not exactly a confidence booster. I got a D.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

[hollysmom]

18. well, some teachers just don't see the genius in people.

When I was a kid the teachers kept trying to keep me back because they thought I was slow, so the school put me in the slow classes where they kept repeating everything a million times and I had horrible grades.
one year I became friends with a girl who just could not get math, so I got ahead of my class because I was tutoring my friend who was in an advanced class - I went way beyond what my class was learning. That was a year when they gave a statewide test in math and I ended up with the best grade in that school. They thought I cheated because we had not covered the material, I said make up a question on the spot and ask me, so they did. I told them what they did wrong in the question because they said it would be a round number, but was a crazy fraction instead. Ha Ha, then I had to explain about getting ahead of the class by working with my friend. I don't know if they thought I was an idiot savant or what, but it really did not get me anywhere until I moved on to high school and new teachers. But at least they knew I wasn't cheating and the test grade went into my file along with all the statements that I was a very slow learner, ha ha.
high school was better.

If you were my friend, I would have tutored you, by geometry I had a bunch of friends that needed help.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

21. Tracking vs de-tracking is another education issue seldom discussed enough

Did you misbehave and get busted down into a slow track for no valid reason?

Some students don't even get to take the kind of standardized test that rescued you, for fear they'll bring down the school's high-stakes test average.

[hollysmom]

26. it was a million years ago. Things were different then

Let's just say I got the educational push of a country scared by Sputnik.

No, I always had difficulty writing, it was an inherited problem something about hand muscles. So I could never finish an essay test, my fingers would cramp up. And math teachers made you write down all the steps even when you could do it in your head. Plus I was shy and did not talk much in class and add to it, once you get in a slow class, you get bored out of your mind and I used to day dream a lot, could not help it. I have to thank my sister for giving me the backbone to fight both teachers and parents who thought a girl did not need an education and went into college prep when the school wanted me to go vocational. Once in high school, I seem to bond with my teachers more than others, and got into advanced classes especially in science and math, not so much in history.

today I would have been analyzed and put on drugs as hyperactive.

[scorpiogirl]

25. Thank you

I think I was missing some gene for other than basic math, unfortunately. I was also majorly blocked in algebra, but now that I'm older, it's not so hard. I think I was trying to understand something that I should have just accepted. Needless to say, I never went any farther in math since we didn't have to.

Now that I'm doing school the second time around with my kids, it's easier with an older prospective.

My daughter is super smart but doesn't always test well. She did manage to do quite well on last years STAR test though. Her school tried to get her to study for it but we already had too much homework so we didn't. Didn't seem to matter, she had a good day that day.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. My sixth grade teacher was like that

insulting some students while several others were Favorites. He'd been busted down from Principal for something but had been there forever so they couldn't (wouldn't) fire him.

but he was a rare one

[gkhouston]

12. My music teacher in 6th grade told an entire class that we were "nothing... peanuts".

I don't even remember her name. Almost all my teachers were great, though, and I've got a kid in middle school who hasn't had a dud yet.

[RKP5637]

30. Fortunately I had a music teacher in the 6th grade that helped me excel in

music. Just one teacher can have a drastic impact on ones life, good or bad. All my other teachers through school were really good, well, with a couple of duds along the way, but all in all, damn good. I feel very lucky.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

14. Valuable observation. Some economists of education argue that schools

are part sorting mechanism for society as well as part transferers of marketable skills.

[msongs]

17. many famous people have heard similar - it's just one person's opinion nt

[tjdee]

19. A doctor once told me I'd never be a ballerina.

People in positions of influence say stupid things to kids and teenagers who aren't the shining All-American squeakycleans. I've heard many, many stories.

A relevant one that comes to mind is Shakira being told by a teacher (or coach?) that her voice sounded like a goat's.

My daughter knows that if some idiot says something untoward to her, they are merely speaking from their own perspective. And that her opinion of herself is more important than another's opinion--what they think of her is none of her business!

But oh I'd have a talk with that teacher alright.

[MadHound]

20. A whole lot less common that parents who do the same,

In oh so many different ways.

[Luminous Animal]

22. Ain't that the truth.

[RKP5637]

28. So many parents do things some without even realizing it. Things said to me

still sting today. Probably mine were mild compared to some today. They clearly loved me, but so often parents just don't understand how words can really hurt a small kid.

[Brickbat]

42. This.

[ohiosmith]

23. My JHS principal told me I'd end up dead or in prison by the time I was 18.

[spanone]

24. teacher that would say that to a student pretends to know the future and knows little of human beans

also is an asshole

[RKP5637]

27. In college I had an advanced calculus instructor that gave everyone F's. She was sadistic. Why

she remained on staff is a mystery to me today. The damn course material was hard enough without some asshole like that being the instructor.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

34. Precisely why it shouldn't be impossible to fire teachers.

As much as I love the unions, they go to the extreme on that aspect of employment.

[RKP5637]

37. Yep, that well might have been it ... She was very smart, really smart, but NEVER should

have been teaching. It's not like we all were F material after having made it that far in mathematics. I had to take the course over, like all of us except for one guy I think, next time got a different instructor and got a B.

[Brickbat]

43. Fortunately, it's not impossible to fire teachers -- or college instructors, for that matter.

[dionysus]

38. we had an AP english teacher senior year, who had a touch of hating men to her. it wasn't blatant,

we all liked her; one of her favorite students was a guy even. just a comment here and there, an unprovoked diss towards maledom. but every once in a while something WTF-able would slip out. our class really liked her, though... it didn't get in the way of th teaching, and the class was great fun.

in a short time, i guess those issues got much worse or couldn't be suppressed anymore, because 2-3 years later when i was going to college i found that she'd gotten fired for baselessly flunking every single male in the AP English class...

some like to say that no bad teachers exist, this is far from the truth. however, in my personal experience growing up, you maybe had one, maybe two really bad ones per school. and add in a couple semi-douchbags that were at best tolerable, but a pretty small percentage actually.

and the teacher who got fired, i think she was a good person who, basically, was suffering the culmination of some sort of slow building breakdown over something that was very serious to her

but I couldn't say how much my experience in a mid sized town's school system, in Maine, in the 80s and early 90s , compares to the way things are today.

[RKP5637]

41. Thinking back the class, as I recall now, was all guys. I do recall some

hostile remarks, now that you've mentioned it, that she made about men. I can't recall the specifics all of these years later, but something similar could well have been at the root of it all. She was very good looking, a sarcastic personality, and in some ways very nice. It was a strange experience. In my early twenties coming from a small town to a large university, it was the first time I had ever encountered something like that.

It was so bad I wrote a small article, anonymously, in the school newspaper about her. That was way back, when instructors/professors were not to be questioned, they were treated as gods placed on pillars where I went to school.

[bluestateguy]

29. Oh yes

I saw a teacher say this to an incorrigible classmate of mine in the 6th grade over 20 years ago.

I did some checking and in fact that guy is currently in prison and has been in and out of prison for the last decade.

So in this case the teacher was right.

[RKP5637]

35. I went to school with a guy like that, I don't know whatever happened to

him. He was brilliant, but a real juvenile delinquent. He probably ended up on wall street or something. ... teacher told him in 10th grade he was headed for prison.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

39. Self-delete--wrong place for post #40

[ProgressiveEconomist]

40. Valid Point IMO. Sometimes such a prediction can be correct. But

still, wouldn't it be a better idea for a teacher to QUALIFY the prediction -- for example, "If you stay on the path you're on, you may never amount to much of anything. I'll help you if you want to help yourself."

Can't and don't kids often CHANGE?

[Courtesy Flush]

31. "Doctors said I'd never walk"

People love to tell stories of authority figures crushing them with their words. I think it involves a lot of creative remembering.

[cynatnite]

32. A teacher told my sister that she would go to hell if she didn't do her school work...

She was in 2nd grade at the time. My mother was able to force the teacher to apologize, but it didn't go further than that. The district refused to fire her.

My oldest daughter had a teacher announce to the class that cabbage patch dolls were of the devil. She bust out laughing and was made to sit in a corner for the next 2 hours until lunch. I wanted to confront the teacher and she begged me not to.

Another teacher threw an eraser at my other daugher because she thought she was talking in class. I called the teacher and before I even got a word out, she was apologizing. I told her not to worry about it.

There are teachers who have no business being teachers, IMO. The vast majority are fine. These examples and the one you mentioned are not the norm at all. In fact, I say it's rare to have a teacher like that.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

33. I wouldn't be surprised.

My 4th grade teacher used to threaten to call social services on kids to get them to behave.

One day, someone asked me to pick something up that had rolled under my desk and she said: "Am I going to have to call social services to see why you are talking during class?"

My kindergarten teacher was probably the best grade school teacher I ever had. She called my parents one day just to brag on how well I was doing.

[Blue_In_AK]

36. My middle daughter's first grade teacher was like that.

My daughter was really in no hurry to learn how to read. In fact, until she was about four she still hadn't learned her letters. One day she said to me, "well, I guess it's about time I start learning these things.". But back to the teacher, she actually said to me during a parent-teacher conf That she had wondered if my daughter was "retarded" until she saw that she could do the tangrams faster than any other kid in the class. But she really picked on my daughter to the point where she faked illness constantly so she wouldn't have to go to school.

Now 30 years later this daughter is a lawyer, assistant general counsel for the directors' guild in Los Angeles. She has often said, "I wish that b***h could see me now."

So, yes, there are teachers who fuck up, but it was also teachers she had in high school who encouraged her to become a lawyer.

[cali]

44. I had a teacher like that. Mrs. Burns. As it happens, 8th grade

she did her utmost to humiliate me in front of the class. But instead of humiliating me, it made me so angry I couldn't see straight. She finished by faux sweetly saying something to the effect that now you're going to be a good little bird and fly right. I told her she could fly any way she wanted but I wasn't going with her and walked out of class.

It was a private day school where it was pro forma to be invited back each year.

I wasn't.

[jp11]

45. I didn't see it and I don't know if that happened or what was said but

the teacher could have easily said if you don't work hard/do your assignments you're not going to amount to anything or some variation on that theme.

Just because this person remembers that bit or heard that doesn't mean that was what was said, it doesn't mean it isn't either but one person's claim isn't absolute proof of anything.


I think it is rare that a teacher would say such a shitty thing to a kid, as he claims, and a bit more common for a teacher to try and convince a kid they need to do this/that or apply themselves OR they'll be bad consequences for their future.

If my fictional child brought home a fictional story about their fictional teacher and the fictional discouragement of his or her fictional aspirations I'd demand my fictional child tell me the full fictional story and if the fictional story showed the fictional teacher to be out of line I'd go to the fictional school and have a serious talk with the fictional teacher to get their side. Then and only then would I make a decision about whether or not to complain with the fictional principal.

[nadine_mn]

46. I had a teacher say that to me in high school

he also told me I shouldn't take the AP English test (I was a junior in HS and this was one of the first years of the AP system...yes I am that old)... I did and got the highest score out of anyone from my school taking it...also based on my score, placed out of having to take any English in college (took some anyway).

Actually I had a couple of teachers who told me I wouldn't amount to anything... still I managed to graduate from law school. To be fair, I was a major slacker... one of those kids who never had to work for good grades.

Not all teachers are perfect... a few burnt out bad apples can really hurt a kid's self esteem.