I will share a story on how I got revenge on a just plain crabby and mean teacher in three separate ways.

A quick example of just how crabby and mean she (her name was Mrs. Peterson) was? A student came into our classroom one day and tried to give her a cupcake, because it was his birthday. A good teacher would have told the child happy birthday and taken a cupcake, or if they didn’t want the cupcake said “Thanks anyway, but I’m on a diet” or whatever. Mrs. Peterson? Not so much.

She told the kid, “How dare you interrupt my teaching!”

Seriously. Not our learning, but my teaching.

Mrs. Peterson had a favorite student, but no one could really prove that she did, and that this student in particular was getting special treatment. We had a system in which you were awarded points if you were good, and points were taken away if you were bad. Pretty simple, right? Except for the flaw: the teacher could simply ignore certain well-behaving students and reward the students she liked. Unfair, but what could young me do about it?

Several things, actually: it didn’t help the unfairness, but it certainly was revenge. We, that year, were writing good poems/bad poems. An example, in case you don’t know what they are:

I like dogs, they’re cuddly.

But they’re wet and smell funny.

Dogs are cute.

But they cost too much.

I decided to write my poem on her. Her favorite student was Rose. Note: there was one kid in the class, a friend of mine. His name was Ian. I was his only friend: Ian was talkative and everyone but me thought he was just annoying. He was nice, though, so I gave him a chance and we became friends. Mrs. Peterson detested him. She was unfair to him many times over. So I write about that in my poem. It went something like this:

Mrs. Peterson is cheerful with Rose

While she screams at Ian.

Mrs. Peterson takes us on field trips

But she is always late for them.

It amused me a lot. That’s what I turned in, wither her name on it and all.

Then, a day or so later, I saw this Post-it note on her desk: Talk to (my name) about good poem/bad poem.

She gave me a talk about how she was considering not doing good poems/bad poems (after reading mine, I assumed) because they could be used to hurt others, and how this was not the intention.

Under her instruction, I changed the first two lines.

Second way I got revenge: this was a year after, and I was writing an autobiography. In the instructions, it stated we (the students) were to write about a few things- traits, I should say- about themselves.

Mine?

I proved that Mrs. Peterson had a favorite by writing how she called on Rose eight times during one lesson and everyone else only once (or zero times) even though Rose had the answer wrong quite a few times. I had the correct answer, but of course I was not called upon, being second to Rose (or possible third, or fourth… You know what, I don’t think she liked me anyway.)

I phrased it as a trait- that I noticed things and liked to do detective work.

The third and final way I got revenge was even a year after that. I was supposed to be writing a story on what I would do if none of the teachers were there for school. I wrote about how the teacher all had to go to a meeting and the kids were left alone in the classrooms. Then, the kids took out their musical instruments and played (random notes, in case you’re wondering.)

Mrs. Peterson, in the story, had to calm herself before doing something drastic, basically depicting her as a weak-minded bull that had seen red.

The story ended with a students v. teachers dodgeball fight. It started with a student throwing a ball at a teacher. Which teacher? Mrs. Peterson.

So, in conclusion, I would do something similar: something technically not breaking any school rules but definitely not praise for the specific teacher. I hold grudges, so that’s why even years later I was still against her.

Do something that you will reflect on and laugh about years later, but that you will never regret.