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I'd be in that last 40% hehe. I had a teacher who used to bully me in maths, call me stupid in front of everyone, was strict about presentation (not one my strong suits), and would rank our seating arrangements by homework grades.

I used to dread his classes, and recall a particular parents-teachers night where he loudly announced to the room that he was putting me down into a lower set and replacing me with another student. My mother and I begged him not to and he relented, but the bullying increased.

The new student turned out to not be better than me, despite being a clear favourite, and he was put back into the lower set. The teacher now realised he'd have to try a different approach to push up the tail end of the class: encouragement.

And.... it worked. Slowly I began to trust that he was on my side, my learning improved, and I was even putting in effort for the presentation. I still wasn't in the top 10, but I was in the top 20 and that was good enough for both me and him.

Before my exams I remember walking side by side with him down an empty corridor and told him I that he should know I was going to get the top grade, and I remember him saying he already knew.

Looking back on that now, I think it was an eye-opening experience for both of us. He wasn't trying to bully me for the sake of bullying, he was genuinely trying to help me using old schoolmaster tactics, but when they failed, he tried a different approach. I still think he was a bit of a cunt, but I do respect him for his efforts.

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~inquiry wrote:

It's a difficult situation. Kids wind up with a couple elders by biological definition that generally don't even know how to fuck well, let alone bring a new human being to fulfilling maturation, along the way leaning on strangers to do at least 51% of that work in rooms teeming with other similarly neglected time-bombs.

But, hey, no one ever said mass selfishness hypnosis would be easy, right?