What Grinds Their Gears: Teachers’ Pet Peeves

Mr. Skemp gets serious. -Photo by Lila Anderson
A stern Mr. Skemp.
-Photo by Lila Anderson

Teachers are people too, like it or not. And like most people, they are annoyed by certain behaviors of others. These are their pet peeves when it comes to students:

For freshmen and senior history teacher Mr. Kevin Keiser, his biggest pet peeve is the constant nagging of students wondering if their tests have been graded yet.
For biology teacher Dr. Yvonne Boldt, there are two things that students do. One is major, and the other is something that students do subconsciously.
“Students sitting sideways in the chair at their desk,” is the major pet peeve, said Dr. Boldt. “Spinning and or twirling pens/pencils/knives,” is the minor one. “Though I don’t usually have to worry about knives at school,” she added.
  
History teacher Mr. Ian Skemp tries to handle his pet peeves by remaining calm and taking deep breaths but this doesn’t work every time.
“Well, I try to remain calm and professional. Most annoyances are easily overcome with a deep breath,” said Mr. Skemp. “However, there’s one thing that really grinds my proverbial gears. I don’t like having to hound students down and contact their parents to get a missing assignment. Sometimes, I’ll remind a student by e-mail AND in person, and still don’t get what I need from them. While this can be indicative of a serious problem (depression, anxiety, etc), it sometimes is simply a matter of a student ‘checking out.’ They’ve stopped caring about their education, and therefore don’t bother to stay on top of their work. This is a terrible attitude not befitting a scholar.”
The inability of students to park straight in the parking lot is English teacher Mr. William Lasseter’s biggest pet peeve.
“I get very annoyed by drivers who do not know how to park straight in the North lot,” said Mr. Lasseter, “Inconsiderate behavior is inconsiderate behavior, whether in the halls or in an automobile.”