25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

Introduction
Alas, words and deeds that cut deep to the tender core of the inner self
leave scars on the soul that can last a lifetime.
—Carolyn Orange
This bit of prose capsulizes a problem that occurs all too often in classrooms
across the country. Some teachers do and say things that traumatize
students, leaving them psychologically scarred from childhood on
into adulthood. I use traumatize in the academic context of psychological or
physiological effects that an aversive situation has on a person that results in
devastating, long-term effects or lasting negative impressions.
When we reflect on our academic past, most of us can remember one or
two teachers that we will never forget for a variety of reasons. For some of us
it was the super-strict, no-nonsense teacher that didn’t smile until Christmas,
or maybe it was the kindly teacher that made each child feel special. Perhaps
it was the teacher with the smile in her eyes that believed in us when we did
not believe in ourselves. Or, lurking in the shadows of our reflection there is
the specter of the teacher who left a lasting negative impression on us
through unfair treatment, physical injury, mental cruelty, incompetence, or
poor instruction.
Teachers in the latter group have left those of us unfortunate enough to
cross their paths diminished in some way. Their overt and covert acts have had
lasting effects that have spanned decades for some people. Many adults can
remember with incredible clarity humiliating or devastating events that happened
to them in second or third grade, as evidenced in the following quotes:
“ . . . This happened 33 years ago and I still remember the embarrassment.”
“...To this day I remember how traumatized I was and how
ashamed I felt.”
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