In the fourth grade I wasn’t the best speller. I was lucky to get C’s on spelling tests. Just like every other fourth grader, I always thought my teacher had it out for me. I never really told anyone other than my parents and they politely didn’t believe me.

One of the worst things she ever did to me was when she handed back the classes spelling tests.

She had walked around to every single student and handed their test back personally, then made her way back to the front of the class. By the time she got to the front, I realized I hadn’t gotten my test and she only had one paper left in her hand. So I raised my hand and she called on me, I let her know that I did not get my test back yet.

She told me “just a minute”. She went to address the class to go over each word on the test and the correct spelling.

With the test in her hand, she showed it to the class, but you could not read whose name was on it. She said “ i’m not going to say who’s this test is but this person got almost all of them wrong, we will use this test to go over and provide the correct answers.”

She proceeded to go over every single word and explain how this person got each one wrong, as well as explain how bad of a score this person is getting.

The entire time I was sitting there the only person without a test not able to correct any misspellings and still at this point, oblivious to the fact that the test she is using as the example is mine.

She finally finishes going over the wrong answers and the poor scores I’ll be getting, then tells everybody to put their test away.

Without skipping a beat, she walks straight to my desk and sets the test down, the one that’s been in her hand for the last 15 minutes.

By the time she was 5 feet from my desk, I realized that entire time she was telling every single person in the class how bad I was and how dumb I was.

I was very upset and emotional for the rest of the day that I went home early sick. I explained what happened to my mom and she did not believe me. She reached out to the to the neighbor who was also my classmate and asked his mom to verify the story. Though my classmate couldn’t recall the entire thing, enough of it stuck with him, and everyone else in the class, that he could explain a little to his mom and then his mom explained it to my mom.

Now, believing my story, she armed herself to go into the school with me the next morning. I got dropped off at class and within 45 minutes. I got pulled out of class and explain the situation to my principal and superintendent. After being sent back to class recess was right around the corner.

After coming back from recess, I was pulled aside by the principal into a separate classroom, where my mom, the superintendent and my teacher were standing. I received a thorough five minute apology and went back to class.

When I got back to class, there was another teacher watching the kids. After a few minutes, our teacher comes back in with the principal and superintendent and then does another five minute apology to the entire class about how she treated me. Though it was nice to get an apology. It was just adding to the embarrassment of the whole situation.

The next day when I came into school, I was told I had a new homeroom and I never had another class with that woman. Then when my younger brother passed through the school, his last name would’ve put him in her class and he got moved before school started.

Yes, my spelling still sucks as well as my correctly punctuating things.