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<h2>While most teachers hope for the best for the future of their students (even the ones who truly drive them crazy), it&#39;s rare that teachers are totally surprised by the career paths or life choices their former students make...</h2><p>Interests and talents are often locked in at a surprisingly early age, but sometimes the quietest student who sits in the back doodling mermaids will grow up to be a highly divisive politician. Students who find a way to break every single rule set by the staff, slack off every subject and coast through each grade seemingly hating everything about school can surprise everyone by becoming teachers themselves.</p><p>So, when a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ni610a/longtime_elementary_school_teachers_which_of_your/">Reddit </a>user asked teachers, &quot;Long-time elementary school teachers, which of your former students surprised you the most by their adult life outcomes or personality?&quot; people who have taught young students for years were ready to share.</p><h2>1.</h2><blockquote> <p>I retired from teaching after 36 years of working with special education students of varying exceptionalities. There was one female student that I worked with for several years that displayed a keen aptitude in math but also initially had a phobia for math. Interesting. I would always approach her with math by using the words, &quot;Okay, we&#39;re going to play with some math.&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>The shift in her approach to math along with the elimination of anxiety associated with the subject was truly amazing to witness. Within a half a year I mainstreamed her into a regular education math class and she was out performing other students. She went onto the University of WA and was awarded scholarships for her work in math. &quot;Okay, we&#39;re going to play with some math.&quot; - Tontoehangten</p> </blockquote><h2>2.</h2><blockquote> <p>a kid that would cry if he did not get his way / for random things and was a really big baby. All of the other kids were sick of him because of the crying. He is an offensive lineman in the NFL now. - dekar73</p> </blockquote><h2>3.</h2><blockquote> <p>I had a class of 8th graders one year that I SWORE we&#39;d someday see one of their pictures on the front page of the paper because they were arrested for something (small town). That class drove me crazy.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>The one that drove me the craziest was hyper, wouldn&#39;t do his work, copied on tests so openly that I had to pass out 3 different tests every time...the list was endless. He ended up on the front page of our paper, though. He was a top adviser in the Bush administration! - TakeMeToLallybroch</p> </blockquote><h2>4.</h2><blockquote> <p>I ran a program for kids grades 4-7 for a local newspaper. I would reach them the fundamentals of journalism, and they would write stories for a weekly kids page.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>One of my students got a degree in journalism and was a television broadcaster for a little while. Another went into public relations and works for a university, last I heard. Another runs a really cool vlog and has been getting some notice as an influencer.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>And another got a degree in journalism, earned an Emmy just a few years out of college, and now hosts a national television show and interviews famous people on the red carpet. - KnitzSox</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>5.</h2><blockquote> <p>There was this girl in my class who used to be so shy. Always sat on the last bench. Was friends with only 1 girl. Barely had any social skills. She went on to become the biggest superstar in Indian cinema ( Bollywood) - babelieka</p> </blockquote><h2>6.</h2><blockquote> <p>The fit, athletic kid who is now morbidly obese, the tiny, pretty quiet girl with 3 kids at 18 chain smoking at the school gate. The kid who you only remember because his name was on a class list who is now an international Ice skating champion. The fat kid who was always in trouble, coming to collect younger cousins looking dashing in his suit and tie...</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>You go through <em>thousands</em> of children. You love them and care for each of them whilst they are in your care but, the truth is, whilst you want each and every one of them to go on and live happy and healthy lives (even the naughty ones), you quickly accept that once they leave, they are no longer your responsibility. You don&rsquo;t &lsquo;track&rsquo; them or follow them - you don&rsquo;t have the time because, once they are gone, another group of needy individuals arrive who require your undivided attention.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Don&rsquo;t get me wrong - we <em>love</em> it when former pupils become successful (in happiness - not finance) and return as adults to tell us so. It&rsquo;s our collective dream for all of you. But we won&rsquo;t be following your lives. We don&rsquo;t have the mental capacity for it. - alterperspective</p> </blockquote><h2>7.</h2><blockquote> <p>Three of my former students went into my field and actually came back to work for me at my school for internships.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>One of them was no surprise. One only a little surprise. But the third drove me nuts. He was a huge problem child in class. This was the kid that make me sympathize with Homer Simpson&#39;s strangling reaction to Bart. But I kept my cool of course!</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>And he&#39;s now a respected professional in the field. He still credits me for his career path. I feel like all the stress he put me through was worth it! - harpejjist</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>8.</h2><blockquote> <p>Got kicked out of his former highschool beacuse he &quot;would never understand math&quot;. Now he&#39;s in the second years of astrophisycs phd and he&#39;s certantly going places. - NotBarbamento</p> </blockquote><h2>9.</h2><blockquote> <p>The High School Principal stood him up in front of the entire school assembly and said &quot;Take a look at this boy. This is a boy that will never amount to anything&quot;.</p> <p>That boy just sold his house for $20million to buy a bigger one. - whatsupskip</p> </blockquote><h2>10.</h2><blockquote> <p>The overweight, smelly kid who was bullied, socially awkward, obsessed with trains, and didn&#39;t really have friends joined the Civil Air Patrol and later became an airline pilot. - DoctorWatchamacallit</p> </blockquote><h2>11.</h2><blockquote> <p>The shy, socially awkward, goodie two shoes kid with an IEP a mile long became a plasma physicist and one of their projects actually made it onto the perseverance mars probe. They also came out as transgender and transitioned to female. Nobody thought the kid would make it that far because of her learning disabilities, but turns out she outdid most of the &quot;gifted&quot; kids.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Also turns out her social awkwardness was entirely because she was trying to act like a boy. Once you let her just be one of the girls she was suddenly a lot more socially eloquent and confident. - DoctorWatchamacallit</p> </blockquote><h2>12.</h2><blockquote> <p>I taught Gym and had a little dude who excelled in my class but was a thug in everything else. My wifes food truck catered for a bike run where a lot of Outlaw MCs took part. I saw the kid there and he was now the President of his own Outlaw MC... He remembered me and introduced me to his old lady and other gang members..I was super proud of him... - openmindedsceptic77</p> </blockquote><h2>13.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was teaching 3rd grade. I had a kid that would literally shoot spitballs in class. Through a straw. Kid would bring his own straws to school and chew notebook paper to shoot. This happened every day, probably seven or eight times a day I&#39;d catch him doing it. He would just start f*cking with other kids, poking them with pencils and sh*t loudly in the middle of class.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Now, I hate sending kids to the principle because I feel it undermines my authority in the class. This kid was different though. He got sent to the office average twice a week. Just couldn&#39;t deal with it. He goes onto highschool. I don&#39;t hear good things about him. I don&#39;t hear much just that he&#39;d fallen in with a bad crowd. It&#39;s 2005 when I&#39;m teaching him in 3rd grade.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Flash-forward sixteen years and I pull up to a red light on my way home from work. Red lamborgini. Who is sitting there in the driver&#39;s seat? Of course this kid. No sunglasses, actually he had pretty nerdy/hip glasses on.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>&quot;Mr. Igot!&quot; He says. And he smiled at me. Seemed really genuinely happy to see me. I didn&#39;t even had time to compose myself, realize it was THIS kid and respond before the light turned green and he rocketed off. He had this smile on that I&#39;ll never forget. Good for him! - igotenemies29</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>14.</h2><blockquote> <p>I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he&rsquo;s on his way to being an astrophysicist. He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I&rsquo;ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him. - missjvj</p> </blockquote><h2>15.</h2><blockquote> <p>The student whose social skills were non existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is in college taking nuclear physics. I swear he was <em>easily</em> like 3 grades behind when I knew him in primary/junior grades - Stevieeer</p> </blockquote><h2>16.</h2><blockquote> <p>My mom had a student in 3rd grade who was a bit of a troublemaker. She would have pretend trials sometimes in her classroom and made this kid a judge once. Many years later he nominated her for a big teaching award just because she gave him that opportunity in the classroom, he said it made him want to grow up to be a judge. Last I heard he was elected as a district attorney. - musikmaker85</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>17.</h2><blockquote> <p>One of my kids would only play with Legos and hated school because he figured things out far more quickly than anyone else.</p> <p>He was one of the founders of MakerBot. - thatswhatsupVT</p> </blockquote><h2>18.</h2><blockquote> <p>I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were &quot;fuck you!&quot; -- many years later he came back to the school I&#39;d been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>In his words, &quot;I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I&#39;m sorry.&quot; I cried like a baby - I was so proud of him. - Ripleyof9</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

18 teachers share the most surprising life path of a student they underestimated.

While most teachers hope for the best for the future of their students (even the ones who truly drive them crazy), it&#39;s rare that teachers are totally surprised by the career paths or life choices their former students make...Interests and talents are often locked in at a surprisingly early age, but sometimes the quietest student who sits in the back doodling mermaids will grow up to be a highly divisive politician. Students who find a way to break every single rule set by the staff, slack off every subject and coast through each grade seemingly hating everything about school can surprise everyone by becoming teachers themselves.So, when a Reddit user asked teachers, &quot;Long-time elementary school teachers, which of your former students surprised you the most by their adult life outcomes or personality?&quot; people who have taught young students for years were ready to share.1. I retired from teaching after 36 years of working with special education students of varying exceptionalities. There was one female student that I worked with for several years that displayed a keen aptitude in math but also initially had a phobia for math. Interesting. I would always approach her with math by using the words, &quot;Okay, we&#39;re going to play with some math.&quot;  The shift in her approach to math along with the elimination of anxiety associated with the subject was truly amazing to witness. Within a half a year I mainstreamed her into a regular education math class and she was out performing other students. She went onto the University of WA and was awarded scholarships for her work in math. &quot;Okay, we&#39;re going to play with some math.&quot; - Tontoehangten 2. a kid that would cry if he did not get his way / for random things and was a really big baby. All of the other kids were sick of him because of the crying. He is an offensive lineman in the NFL now. - dekar73 3. I had a class of 8th graders one year that I SWORE we&#39;d someday see one of their pictures on the front page of the paper because they were arrested for something (small town). That class drove me crazy.  The one that drove me the craziest was hyper, wouldn&#39;t do his work, copied on tests so openly that I had to pass out 3 different tests every time...the list was endless. He ended up on the front page of our paper, though. He was a top adviser in the Bush administration! - TakeMeToLallybroch 4. I ran a program for kids grades 4-7 for a local newspaper. I would reach them the fundamentals of journalism, and they would write stories for a weekly kids page.  One of my students got a degree in journalism and was a television broadcaster for a little while. Another went into public relations and works for a university, last I heard. Another runs a really cool vlog and has been getting some notice as an influencer.  And another got a degree in journalism, earned an Emmy just a few years out of college, and now hosts a national television show and interviews famous people on the red carpet. - KnitzSox 5. There was this girl in my class who used to be so shy. Always sat on the last bench. Was friends with only 1 girl. Barely had any social skills. She went on to become the biggest superstar in Indian cinema ( Bollywood) - babelieka 6. The fit, athletic kid who is now morbidly obese, the tiny, pretty quiet girl with 3 kids at 18 chain smoking at the school gate. The kid who you only remember because his name was on a class list who is now an international Ice skating champion. The fat kid who was always in trouble, coming to collect younger cousins looking dashing in his suit and tie...  You go through thousands of children. You love them and care for each of them whilst they are in your care but, the truth is, whilst you want each and every one of them to go on and live happy and healthy lives (even the naughty ones), you quickly accept that once they leave, they are no longer your responsibility. You don&rsquo;t &lsquo;track&rsquo; them or follow them - you don&rsquo;t have the time because, once they are gone, another group of needy individuals arrive who require your undivided attention.  Don&rsquo;t get me wrong - we love it when former pupils become successful (in happiness - not finance) and return as adults to tell us so. It&rsquo;s our collective dream for all of you. But we won&rsquo;t be following your lives. We don&rsquo;t have the mental capacity for it. - alterperspective 7. Three of my former students went into my field and actually came back to work for me at my school for internships.  One of them was no surprise. One only a little surprise. But the third drove me nuts. He was a huge problem child in class. This was the kid that make me sympathize with Homer Simpson&#39;s strangling reaction to Bart. But I kept my cool of course!  And he&#39;s now a respected professional in the field. He still credits me for his career path. I feel like all the stress he put me through was worth it! - harpejjist 8. Got kicked out of his former highschool beacuse he &quot;would never understand math&quot;. Now he&#39;s in the second years of astrophisycs phd and he&#39;s certantly going places. - NotBarbamento 9. The High School Principal stood him up in front of the entire school assembly and said &quot;Take a look at this boy. This is a boy that will never amount to anything&quot;. That boy just sold his house for $20million to buy a bigger one. - whatsupskip 10. The overweight, smelly kid who was bullied, socially awkward, obsessed with trains, and didn&#39;t really have friends joined the Civil Air Patrol and later became an airline pilot. - DoctorWatchamacallit 11. The shy, socially awkward, goodie two shoes kid with an IEP a mile long became a plasma physicist and one of their projects actually made it onto the perseverance mars probe. They also came out as transgender and transitioned to female. Nobody thought the kid would make it that far because of her learning disabilities, but turns out she outdid most of the &quot;gifted&quot; kids.  Also turns out her social awkwardness was entirely because she was trying to act like a boy. Once you let her just be one of the girls she was suddenly a lot more socially eloquent and confident. - DoctorWatchamacallit 12. I taught Gym and had a little dude who excelled in my class but was a thug in everything else. My wifes food truck catered for a bike run where a lot of Outlaw MCs took part. I saw the kid there and he was now the President of his own Outlaw MC... He remembered me and introduced me to his old lady and other gang members..I was super proud of him... - openmindedsceptic77 13. I was teaching 3rd grade. I had a kid that would literally shoot spitballs in class. Through a straw. Kid would bring his own straws to school and chew notebook paper to shoot. This happened every day, probably seven or eight times a day I&#39;d catch him doing it. He would just start f*cking with other kids, poking them with pencils and sh*t loudly in the middle of class.  Now, I hate sending kids to the principle because I feel it undermines my authority in the class. This kid was different though. He got sent to the office average twice a week. Just couldn&#39;t deal with it. He goes onto highschool. I don&#39;t hear good things about him. I don&#39;t hear much just that he&#39;d fallen in with a bad crowd. It&#39;s 2005 when I&#39;m teaching him in 3rd grade.  Flash-forward sixteen years and I pull up to a red light on my way home from work. Red lamborgini. Who is sitting there in the driver&#39;s seat? Of course this kid. No sunglasses, actually he had pretty nerdy/hip glasses on.  &quot;Mr. Igot!&quot; He says. And he smiled at me. Seemed really genuinely happy to see me. I didn&#39;t even had time to compose myself, realize it was THIS kid and respond before the light turned green and he rocketed off. He had this smile on that I&#39;ll never forget. Good for him! - igotenemies29 14. I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he&rsquo;s on his way to being an astrophysicist. He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I&rsquo;ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him. - missjvj 15. The student whose social skills were non existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is in college taking nuclear physics. I swear he was easily like 3 grades behind when I knew him in primary/junior grades - Stevieeer 16. My mom had a student in 3rd grade who was a bit of a troublemaker. She would have pretend trials sometimes in her classroom and made this kid a judge once. Many years later he nominated her for a big teaching award just because she gave him that opportunity in the classroom, he said it made him want to grow up to be a judge. Last I heard he was elected as a district attorney. - musikmaker85 17. One of my kids would only play with Legos and hated school because he figured things out far more quickly than anyone else. He was one of the founders of MakerBot. - thatswhatsupVT 18. I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were &quot;fuck you!&quot; -- many years later he came back to the school I&#39;d been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize.  In his words, &quot;I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I&#39;m sorry.&quot; I cried like a baby - I was so proud of him. - Ripleyof9 

While most teachers hope for the best for the future of their students (even the ones who truly drive them crazy), it&#39;s rare that teachers are totally surprised by the career paths or life choices their former students make... ...