A Luther Burbank High School freshman was surprised to read his full name included on a biology final. Not only that, but he was being ridiculed. “In high school, there are individuals who are cross-eyed like (the name of a fellow student) and (the name of the student previously mentioned), which is a dominant trait. We call those individuals ‘weirdoes’. So, if you crossed two weirdoes (the two students named again), that are heterozygous for being cross-eyed, what is the offspring that would result?” Many students in the class were targeted by first and last name on the exam. Teacher Alex Nguyen chose to describe these students by their ethnicities and physical features, and then paired them up, posing questions about what traits a theoretical child of these two students would have. On one question, the teacher wrote a disclaimer, saying “in no way do I promote students being sexually active,” but the student’s parents and other teachers at the school said that the implication of any sexual relationship between students is inappropriate.
Another question targeted two students who got in trouble for sleeping in class, again asking students to speculate about what would happen if these students were to have children.
“Here at the wonderful school of LBHS, we have certain students who love to sleep in class. I even see students fall asleep during exams! Can you believe that?! I don’t like it when students sleep in class… it’s rude! So, WAKE THE #$%K UP! Well, through much study, I have concluded that the gene for falling asleep is dominant. Not only that some students sleep, they snore in class. This too is a dominant trait. What are the possible offspring if you cross a homozygous sleeping, heterozygous snoring student (student name) with a homozygous attentive, non-snoring (student name) student?”
“(When I saw that) I was like, so it’s not like you’re joking about it. You’re being serious about it, because that’s what they really do,” the Allens’ son said. “That’s how I knew he was not playing around.”
OK so this wasn’t OK, but I get it. On one hand, the majority of the time, I’m a student that appreciates their teachers. I pay attention, I ask questions if I need to, and I don’t interrupt. The people that do have always pissed me off. Especially when I was in college, and I would have loved to see a teacher lay into these types of students who only ever frustrate and distract while everyone else is trying to learn. That being said, I’ve also had bad teachers. In 4th grade, I had a teacher that was a misandrist. She gave favorable treatment and grades to the girls in the class, and would be mean to the boys. It sucked, and every boy complained about her, but nothing was ever done. Thankfully, I only ever had her for that one year, but she did make it miserable.
All that being said, I’m still planning to run for office someday, and one of my platforms will be to double all teachers pay.
"In some roles, there are some individuals who are best known as ‘dumbfucks’, like (teachers name) and (teachers mother) for not swallowing (teachers name). We can also call these individuals by the proper scientific term, ‘unfortunately alive’. In this totally-hypothetical situation, how long would it take (teachers name) to realize the ever-reducing brake pressure of their pedal, and inevitably, that their brake lines have been cut? Assuming their typical trip home, at what speed would they be traveling when they came to this realization? Lastly, what would be the most likely end result of these series of events, taking into account the afternoon rush hour traffic at [question part two] speeds, in their poor-condition 1991 Toyota Tercel?
Bonus credit (10 points): Keeping in mind that (teachers name) is a horrible person, estimate how many individuals might attend their funeral, and how many would be present just to confirm the body?"
Send that shit right back, with a warning.
“For some reason, the African American culture has influenced most of the student body. How? In African Americans, they have a gene for the pimp walk, which is dominant. What is the result if you cross (student name) homozygous dominant Latina with a homozygous recessive Hmong like (student name)?”
The question goes on to refer to the dominant trait as walking with a limp and the recessive trait as normal.
The teacher also claimed falling asleep in class was dominant.
And all the examples seem to be the same basic question, just different insults shoehorned in.
Sounds like they were trying to test students on how dominant/recessive genes work, but trying to make jokes so it’d feel relatable. But the jokes are just not funny at all. You have to be REAL close to someone for that to be a joke instead of an insult.
To me it sounds like none of us have context, and although inappropriate I suspect it’s far less devastating to the kids being tested than it would be to outside observers imagining themselves in the kids shoes.
My senior year had a teacher who slipped in a bunch of insider knowledge “material” into their exams to see who was paying attention/wasn’t there that day (“this ocean current should not be confused with this similarly named walk that we used to do when I was in school, if you see it spelled this incorrect way it’s the walk and not the current” (only without the latter qualifier), if any of you have ever taken this class, and didn’t miss lecture that day, you’ll know exactly which high school I went to and who’s class I’m talking about, hit me up!)
I mean, if we wanted our best and brightest (and most compassionate) to teach, we would pay them the best salary they could get with their degrees.
Note to good teachers out there (I’m a teacher too): I’m not saying there aren’t any! I’m just saying that those doing the hiring can’t afford to be terribly picky.
Teacher pay is supposed to be near the best in the nation in California too. But we still don’t pay teachers enough and this is the result we get.
But is that normalized for cost of living? Highest in the nation might still be near subsistence level in one of the highest COL states.
An education system that requires martyrs as teachers is not a sustainable plan.
Seems like this teacher has some mental health issues. Hope they get help and the students get a reexam.
