Line #121 Main/MisplacedKindergartenTeacher


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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6	->''"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking up at me! I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"''
7	-->-- '''[[SadistTeacher Dolores Umbridge]]''' (to a crowd of teens and pre-teens, aged 11 to 18), ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''
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9	Some teachers have an odd tendency to speak to their students as though they are kindergarteners. Even if they're teaching a class of 19-year-old [[CramSchool Cram Schoolers]], college or university students, graduate students, or adults in a [[SensitivityTraining workplace training-course]]. This can be irritating, cute, or both depending on both the teacher and the class. Whether this is limited to just the teacher's demeanor, or whether it actually affects what they teach also varies.
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11	Most of them are nice, if overly so. But when these teachers are downright ''[[SugaryMalice nasty]]'', the {{trope}} goes straight into SadistTeacher territory.
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13	Compare HippieTeacher, with whom this sometimes overlaps. CoolTeacher can be even better. Contrast SadistTeacher, with which this can overlap, and SternTeacher. May overlap TormentedTeacher. See also ProfessionalVoiceDissonance if the teacher's "kingdergarten voice" sounds different from their actual speaking voice.
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15	Of course, this can be TruthInTelevision, especially with foreign language teachers.
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17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	%%* Ton-Chan (yes) from ''Manga/AirGear''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
24	* Takako Shimizu from ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'' wanted to teach young children, but her husband convinced her to become a CramSchool teacher so they would have more time together. [[spoiler:And then left her for his [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots persocom]].]] She's popular with her students, as she still teaches them the correct tutorial and they think it's cute. It helps that she's hot.
25	%%* There's one in ''Anime/DinosaurKing'', crossing into OldMaid and CloudCuckooLander at the same time. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples; neither of those tropes tell us why the character fits ''this''.)
26	* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' has a borderline example. A teacher who's more infantile than her students, she treats them like babies (they are in fact in 6th grade). Case in point: she can't use chopsticks. A ''grown Japanese woman'' who ''can't use chopsticks''.
27	* ''Anime/MagicalProjectS'':
28	** Mihoshi is the fourth grade teacher for Sasami's class, but doesn't seem like she could even ''pass'' fourth grade herself.
29	** The teacher at the prep school acts like this, even getting commented on by one of the students ("does she think we're in kindergarten or something?").
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Comic Books]]
33	* Patty from ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' actually is a kindergarten teacher. However, she has difficulties turning the attitude off and ends up treating her gaming group like a bunch of preschoolers, including a "Time Out Corner" with "5 points to ponder". Sometimes they deserve it.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
37	* In a ''ComicStrip/BigNate'' story where Mr. Rosa is on vacation, his substitute is a teacher whose sixth grade art curriculum includes such projects as paper bag puppets and potato prints.
38	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin's teacher Miss Wormwood is an inversion. The only subject she teaches that's appropriate for first graders is basic math like addition and subtraction. Among the rest of her curriculum: UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, Polish history, the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire, Newton's laws of motion, and word problems that require multiplication and algebra to solve. She has also assigned her students to collect fifty insects and label them with their English and Latin names in two weeks. She issues a similar assignment later on, requiring fifty leaves all from different trees.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Fan Works]]
42	* In many ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' salt fics, Ms. Bustier switches from being the resident CoolTeacher to one of these, thanks to the fact that her teaching methods in the show (which boil down to "prevent as much conflict as possible and inspire students to avoid conflict") have helped [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] and [[TheSociopath Lila]] [[KarmaHoudini get away scot-free with their crimes]] and have led to innocent students getting unfairly punished.
43	** In ''Fanfic/LeaveForMendeleiev'', Ms. Bustier is such a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter that she accepts Chloé's claims that she misses Marinette and just can't focus without her at face value, attempting to badger Marinette into transferring back... or agree to "mentor" her long-term bully.
44	** ''Webcomic/ScarletLady'' deconstructs this trope by showing exactly what sort of effect this has on the teacher's students. Bustier has been teaching some of the kids in her care since they were six, and a lot of the philosophies she teaches (largely revolving around love and forgiveness) are more suited for children that age than teenagers. Unfortunately, these philosophies also mean she keeps enabling [[SpoiledBrat Chloé]] by not punishing her for her bullying, fueling the girl's sense of entitlement; meanwhile, the rest of her class has long wised up to the fact that she isn't a great authority figure, but her reputation as a nice teacher means they're worried ''they'll'' be seen as the bad guys if they complain about it.
45	** ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33339538/chapters/85864183#workskin So you time travel to the future and your classmate gets punched]]'' is also a deconstruction of this trope with the same teacher. As Future!Chloe explains to Caline, her teaching methods were good for elementary school students, but for teens at the time, it was badly misplaced. All the bullies she said 'needed a gentle touch' and refused to properly discipline them, some like her shaped up. The ones that didn't? Half ended up in prison, 3 in rehab and Michael Renaud (who Chloe admits is worse than her) ended up murdered by his former classmates and his corpse dumped in the Seine after beating a student into a coma, resulting in Caline being fired and blacklisted from working in education. All Caline can do is cry at the realization her methods destroyed her career.
46	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/{{Strings\|Lantur}}'', as Tarrlok is over-qualified to be an elementary school teacher and trying to teach his students the advanced stuff, which goes over their heads.
47	* Justified in the ''VideoGame/Persona5'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/28494930 When The Masks Come Off]]'': After [[EvilTeacher Suguru Kamoshida's]] [[HeelFaceBrainwashing change of heart]] and subsequent arrest, [[VideoGame/Persona3 Rio Iwasaki]] is brought in to replace him. In their first PE class with her, Ann Takamaki and Chiyo Kusakabe feel that Iwasaki is trying a bit too hard to be approachable and seems more suited as an elementary school teacher but they understand why that is as this is Iwasaki's first teaching job and it's being Kamoshida's replacement no less.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
51	* [[CloudCuckoolander Amy Squirrel]], the goody-goody HeroAntagonist in ''Film/BadTeacher''. She teachers her junior high school kids while dressed as a naval captain. She's overly enthusiastic about apples and she sometimes wears childish accessories. However, she isn't as nice as she [[BitchInSheepsClothing seems]] (because Elizabeth ''broke'' her on the inside).
52	%%* It's the lead in Literature, but Creator/ImeldaStaunton's performance as Dolores Umbridge in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films deserves mention simply because it's such horror. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; an example needs to stand on its own, not direct the reader to a different example.)
53	%%* Not a teacher, but Creator/TeriHatcher's character in ''Film/SpyKids1'', Ms. Gradenko, initially talks to Carmen and Juni with a vibe of this. [[spoiler:She turns out to be TheMole.]] (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; ''how'' more specifically does she have this vibe?)
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Literature]]
57	* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'', Greg's mother is gleefully oblivious to Greg's unhappiness to any inconvenience she causes him, from inviting Fregley over to play hide n' seek, to making him participate in the school play of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', to joining in Greg's "Magick and Monsters" game and completely ignoring the "kill and level up" nature of the game. Justified, because she used to be a preschool teacher.
58	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
59	** The Cheerful Fairy in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' has shades of this. She addresses elderly wizards as though they were five-year-olds, trying to get them involved in friendship-building and morale-boosting activities. Oh yes, and she cries when they tell her to cut it out. She is like Barney with butterfly wings. She also claims that she never touches alcohol; the wizards dryly remark that they find it's something to be cheerful about.
60	** While Death's granddaughter Susan has largely inverted this trope, treating her kindergarten students as if they were inconveniently small adults, she ''has'' developed the habit of bowdlerizing her own vocabulary ("Does a bear poo in the woods?") even in front of grown-ups.
61	* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', [[Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic Dolores Umbridge]] initially introduces herself to the school by treating the students rather condescendingly and maintaining a sugary sweet demeanor. This soon becomes more sinister as she reveals herself to be a SadistTeacher (she gives Harry detention by making him [[WritingLines write lines]] in his own blood that cut into his skin), and she becomes even worse when she [[TyrantTakesTheHelm takes over the school]].
62	-->"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"\
63	Harry glanced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy; on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were five years old.
64	* ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'':
65	** In ''On the Banks of Plum Creek'', Laura and Mary attend their first Sunday School class (after years of Biblical instruction and family worship at home). Laura likes the teacher Mrs. Tower, but she does exclaim a lot and introduced the class with a story of Baby Moses in the bulrushes ([[DeadpanSnarker Laura remarks to herself that even Baby Carrie knew that story]]) and she gives Laura (who knew how to recite long verses and songs from the Bible) a very small verse.
66	** Eliza Jane Wilder teaches this way when she takes over as teacher of Laura's school, talking down to her students and saying things like "Birds in their little nests agree." It makes almost all of her students uncomfortable, and Laura observes to herself that -- aside from proving that she knows nothing about birds if she really believes that's true -- Miss Wilder will stand no chance whatsoever of being able to maintain discipline in the classroom that way once the older boys come to school after the harvest. Her prediction proves only too accurate.
67	%%* The Goldfish Robot in ''Mars Evacuees'' by Sophia [=McDougall=]. The other teacher robots on Mars also speak this way, but generally they are talking to younger students. The Goldfish teaches 12-year-olds. It is also a SadistTeacher and BadassTeacher. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; in what way more specifically does it speak that's inappropriate for 12-year-olds?)
68	* ''Literature/MrMajeika'': In one of the books, Penelope Primrose, author of cutesy books about a rabbit called Little Bluebell, appears. She refers to the ten-year-old protagonists as "little tots", speaks in baby talk, and insists she doesn't take any "grown-up drinks" like tea. She's scared off when she sniffs a bouquet of flowers with stinging nettles hidden in them.
69	* ''Literature/MsWiz'' mentions that minor character Mrs. Hicks talks to her teddies in class. It's admittedly not said what age her class is, but it's used to show that she's a strange one.
70	* ''Literature/{{Slugfest}}'': Mrs. Finnerty, the remedial P.E. teacher, has spent forty years teaching second grade and home economics, and most of her classes involve kiddie games like musical chairs and duck, duck, goose, or cooking (such as a relay race filling a pitcher with lemonade ingredients). This becomes PlayedForDrama when the kids start worrying that she may not be certified as a gym teacher, which would force them to take the class all over again to graduate if they wait too long to address this (whereas bringing it up too soon might deeply hurt a teacher they like). [[spoiler:It turns out that she is certified, and is even a former Olympian swimmer, and is just a BunnyEarsLawyer and has been imposing such strange activities to adjust for her pupils' wide range of skill levels.]]
71	* ''Literature/StrayCatStrut'': Grasshopper is a samurai sniper with a bug motif who is also an actual kindergarten teacher--she keeps her teaching license next to her literal license to kill. When she hears that Cat has a gaggle of orphans under her care, she shows up dressed in her Sunday best to give everyone (including Cat) a science lesson.
72	-->'''Grasshopper:''' ''[taking out a rocket launcher]'' I was thinking we could start with chemistry, trigonometry, and physics!
73	* Miss Caroline from ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' manages to be this even though she ''is'' teaching very young kids. The problem is that most of them are the children of farmers and have done manual labor pretty much since they could walk, so they're not really interested in the story of Mrs. Cat and her kittens. She gets a nasty shock when she meets one of the Ewells, a family who traditionally show up for the first day of school to satisfy the truant officer and hardly set foot in town the rest of the year. She tries to apply basic school rules to the kid and ends up getting "slut" screamed at her.
74	* ''Literature/TheUnteachables'': After being promoted from kindergarten to middle school, Emma Fountain still tends to reward good behavior from her students with bunny tail stickers.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
78	* Landlady Miriam Fry from ''Series/AgentCarter'' treats her tenants like they were school girls in a dormitory rather than adults living on their own, the way she strictly controls the schedules of the women in her boarding house and forbids men higher than the first floor.
79	* In ''Series/AngryBoys'', we have juvenile prison guard Gran, a zigzagged version of the trope. She is aware of what her charges have done and isn't afraid to be hard on them. On the other hand, she knits them superhero pyjamas.
80	* Jazz from Season 9 of ''Series/TheApprentice'' was this... on a business reality show. Treating business "professionals" like five year olds and talking like a hopelessly outdated teacher did not endear her to either her "team" nor Lord Sugar, and she got fired after the first week when her team lost the task. Saying "Aw man!" to Lord Sugar didn't help either...
81	* Ms. Herbig from ''Series/DeadLikeMe'', the manager of the Happy Time temp agency. She has a habit of talking to her employees as though they're children, and she seems to think that children are happy little automatons that don't really think, because when her employees don't pretend for her benefit, she gets ''snippy''. She actually tells people "as in her big brown eyes" as a mnemonic to remember her name.
82	* Inverted in the ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' episode "Megan's New Teacher": Josh is assigned to teach Megan's science class as part of the "Tomorrow's Teachers Today" program. Despite the class being for 5th graders, Josh assigns his students college-level material, believing that they are somehow capable of learning highly advanced science concepts. Predictably, everyone begins failing the class, and when Drake's substitute drummer (who is in Megan's class) is barred by his parents from playing for his failing grades, [[EnemyMine Drake and Megan]] team up to sabotage Josh's next lesson in front of the class's regular teacher to get him fired.
83	%%* Ricki Lake sure did sound like this when explaining the rules to all the game shows featured on ''Game$how Marathon''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; ''how'' more specifically does she sound like this?)
84	* While Lily from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' is a kindergarten teacher. In the brief period when she has other jobs, she shows a tendency to try and deal with workplace conflicts in the same manner and with the same reasoning as she had with the little children (well, if they are going to act like children...). One episode has her working as an assistant in Ted's office and end up taking away the boss's "toy", a signed baseball, because he was being a JerkAss. It is worth noting that this approach works rather well for dealing with her [[ManChild husband]], Marshall. However, Lily's approach to actually being a kindergarten teacher tends to be a bit more adult then expected. There was the one incident with the severed toy horse's head next to the sleeping unruly kid.
85	* John, who runs the OrphanageOfFear to which errant teens are sent in the [[AWorldHalfFull semi-dystopia]] of ''Series/{{K9}}'', talks like a kindergarten teacher even when he's extorting ten million credits from the Department.
86	* ''Series/LegendHeroes'': A kindergarten teacher treats everyone like the children she works with. She acts cutesy and teeth-rottingly sweet even around the man who has a crush on her. He is too smitten with her to notice. Unfortunately, she also tries this on the resident stoic KnightTemplar, who comes to investigate her possible relation to the current Legend Hero thief. He's not amused.
87	* ''Series/{{Newhart}}'': Dick takes a typing class. It turns out that the instructor is his old sixth-grade teacher, who was a [[SadistTeacher tyrant]]. After initial anxiety, Dick realizes that he has nothing to fear. Things should be different now that the class is all adults, right? Wrong. What follows is a replay of elementary school, complete with the [[TheStoolPigeon whining, snitching suckup classmate]] who reports every petty misdeed to the teacher, and the teacher making the class put their heads down on their desks as punishment for being unruly.
88	* One ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m-1lLrj218 sketch]] features Creator/AlecBaldwin as an enthusiastic French teacher who forces his students to always answer in a very bouncy, lilting manner, much to their annoyance (if you've ever taken a public school French class, you know ''exactly'' how this sounds). The skit ends with him vacationing in Paris and trying to make a gang of Parisian street toughs start talking in the same way. Needless to say, they kick the crap out him.
89	* ''Series/{{Skins}}'':
90	** The supremely incompetent university lecturers -- the punishment for running away from the guided tour, falling in the pool, smashing up a lab, or smoking cannabis is the same: an "I'm very disappointed in you. Now come along for some squash and biscuits" speech. It's especially grating when the female one says "Oh, all right, you can shag me" in the exact same tone of voice.
91	** Josie, Chris's career adviser and later an English teacher, is possibly worse. [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] should never be taught to college students with hand puppetry.
92	* Mary Murphy from ''Series/SoYouThinkYouCanDance'' talks to people like they're babies... or dogs.
93	%%* Mr. G, Chris Lilley's character, made most known by ''Series/SummerHeightsHigh''. A drama teacher, naturally. The topics of his teachings, however, are... rather less than the expected cutesy (the mentioned show's play about a schoolgirl dying of an ecstacy overdose, and another show's musical about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar being prime examples). (Admimistrivia/ZeroContextExample; the example only details the ways in which he ''doesn't'' fit the trope.)
94	* ''Series/TedLasso'':
95	** Ted himself is stuck in the mindset of a college football coach at first, emphasizing helping his players grow as people rather than win games. Beard finally gives him a WhatTheHellHero talk, pointing out that a "winning isn't everything" mindset may work for college students who are going to move on in a few years, it doesn't work for a professional team full of professional athletes, where the sport is their livelihood and quantitative success DOES matter. If AFC Richmond keeps losing and gets relegated, it puts the future of the team in jeopardy, directly harms the players future prospects, and likely results in both coaches getting fired, destroying anything they manage to build in their time there.
96	** Inverted with Roy; after he retires from Richmond and starts coaching his niece's Under-9 girls' team, he treats them exactly like professional athletes, complete with [[SirSwearsALot swearing at them]].
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
100	* Wrestling/MichelleMcCool briefly had a teacher gimmick that bafflingly combined this with a sexy teacher who made cutesy innuendos. Unsurprisingly, she [[CreatorBacklash hates looking back at it now]] (she actually ''was'' a teacher prior to wrestling and was terrified of her former co-workers seeing it).
101	* Nikki Roxx often comes off as condescending when she's trying to be nice to (comparative) rookies and/or foreigners. Part of this comes from her [[HeroicWannabe thinking herself bigger than she really is]] (though [[BewareTheSillyOnes her resume]] makes this perception understandable).
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Theatre]]
105	* The title character of the one-act play ''Miss Bleep''[[note]]or maybe ''Mis Bleep''[[/note]] has a very good excuse for this -- she's a robot, and she treats everyone as a student as part of her programming. She's also malfunctioning quite badly -- for instance, she won't let her "students" leave at the end of the day, giving them a paralyzing shock every time they attempt to escape. They've apparently been surviving on milk and cookies for a ''long'' time.
106	* Glad Hand, the chaperone at the dance in ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. He talks to the Jets and the Sharks as though they're 6th graders attending their first social event, and tries to organize a "get-together dance" for them. While he retains this vibe in the [[Film/WestSideStory1961 1961 film]], it's averted in the [[Film/WestSideStory2021 2021 film]], where he's clearly much more aware that he's dealing with two dangerous street gangs and that his efforts are inevitably going to fail.
107	[[/folder]]
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109	[[folder:Video Games]]
110	* Miss Francine Primm in ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'', who says things like "Smiles are frowns turned upside-down!" unironically. She ends up teaching a class of (adult) drugged-up leet-speaking cyberpunk anarchists, and ''succeeds'', as her students will do anything to protect her.
111	%%* The sweet-voiced pirate re-education teacher in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''. Impeccably voiced by Creator/EdieMcClurg, and perhaps the scariest character in the game. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; explain how she treats her students and why she's scary, not just what her voice is like)
112	* Inverted with Ms. Applegate from ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten\|2017}}''; she actually does teach kindergarten but she's also a [[SadistTeacher sadistic]] ChildHater who constantly [[WouldHurtAChild endangers the lives of her students]]. She shouldn't be teaching at ''any'' grade level, let alone kindergarten.
113	* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', Milla sees her students as little children and treats them accordingly. If you use Clairvoyance on her, you can see Raz through her eyes as a very small child. It turns out that [[spoiler:she once worked at an OrphanageOfLove which was accidentally burned down, and her psychic abilities caused her to hear the thoughts of all the children as they burned to death. She was traumatized as a result. The part of her mind that contains these memories is well-hidden, and she gently tells Raz not to go there.]] Granted, her students ''are'' all pre-adolescent, but their mental maturity varies wildly because they're all psychics and [[DysfunctionJunction excessively strange]].
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
117	* Usami/Monomi of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' claims to be the class teacher, and is an excessively cute, "squeezably-soft" MagicalGirl stuffed animal. The class in question consists of high school students who are 16 at the youngest[[labelnote:Explanation]]The Ultimates are scouted while they are in high school, which begins in 10th grade in Japan (students are 15-16 then), meaning that they're 16-17 during their first year at Hope's Peak depending on when their birthdays are.[[/labelnote]]. None of them are impressed with her, and she's treated as a ButtMonkey throughout the entire game, with only Chiaki being nice to her.
118	* Played with in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. Ms. Walsh talks down to all her students, and utterly fails to teach without Johanna's intervention, but she specializes in teaching special ed, not kindergarten.
119	* Played with in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', since Hinamizawa's school is a rural schoolhouse with [[{{Schoolmarm}} only one teacher]] and a mixed class which ''does'' have some early grade-schoolers; however, Chie-sensei rarely changes her tone when speaking to her middle- or high-school students.
120	* The principal in the first part of 'High School Story' in the ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'' collection was transferred from an elementary school, and exemplified this trope.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Web Animation]]
124	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has Marzipan be this in the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "[[Recap/StrongBadEmailE160Coloring coloring]]", where she's the profoundly condescending head of "L.U.R.N", calling her grown students "life blossoms" and having crayons that don't actually colour, "so that no one life-blossom shines brighter than any other." Of course, it's not surprising considering how her students are [[DumbMuscle Strong Mad]], [[TheDitz Homestar]], and [[CloudCuckoolander Homsar]]. Although when Strong Bad asks, she casually admits that her "class" is really a cult.
125	* ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' usually has the spineless Mr. Milk as a teacher, but one day he is sick, and is replaced by Mrs. Minty, who talks to the students like how a kindergarten teacher would. Vendetta cannot handle her condescending ways, and eventually forces a not yet recovered Milk to teach the class.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Webcomics]]
129	* [[http://www.venisproductions.com/angelmoxie/archives/0/0/009.html Mrs. Merriweather]] from ''Webcomic/AngelMoxie'', who teaches her "boys and girls" the multiplications tables in Algebra I. This seems to be born out of her love of cutesy, kitchy things. Which is ironic, given that [[spoiler:she's actually an evil demon, and no, the love of cutesy stuff isn't just part of her {{Masquerade}}]].
130	%%* Mrs Snockenflaubin of ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'', in one strip. (Usually she's more on the TrueArt trip.) (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
131	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Tsukiko acts like this to her undead minions. From her (crazy) perspective they're only a few days old and need looking after. Consequently the elite squad of wights is organized like they're on a school trip, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0513.html complete with whistles and a buddy system]].
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Websites]]
135	* [[https://notalwaysright.com/addressing-the-big-safety-elephant-in-the-room/36144/ One story]] on Website/NotAlwaysRight has a vice-principal severely misjudge the age range of the student body and tell a school of 13- to 18-year-olds to not jaywalk as "Elmer the Safety Elephant". Though depending on how you look at it, it actually worked, in a way.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Western Animation]]
139	* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Deputy Director Bullock seems to run the C.I.A. as though it was a preschool, in one instance even sending Stan to the corner for a time out and not allowing him to have milk (although seeing as each and every one of his agents is a total ManChild, you could argue that he isn't misplaced at all).
140	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':
141	** Ms. Sweetwater, the third-grade teacher in the classroom next door -- all they ever do in that class is sit around and sing songs.
142	** In "[[Recap/ArthurS1E27DWsBlankieArthursSubstituteTeacherTrouble Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble]]", the class has Mr. Ratburn's sister as a substitute teacher, who insists on teaching lessons including but not limited to "yellow and blue make green" and "cat is spelled C-A-T". At first the class revels in how easy the lessons are, but by the end of the episode they become bored and irritated by her lessons and attitude, realizing how much better off they were with Mr. Ratburn even if his lessons are harder.
143	* Technically inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' episode "Held Back". Beavis and Butt-head are [[HeldBackInSchool ninth graders demoted to kindergarten]] ("These chicks are flat!"), but the kindergarten teacher still treats them in the same manner as she does with her other students.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Guidance counselor Mr. Frond has therapy dolls in his office and is mostly shallow to everyone from fourth grade and up. Considering Wagstaff School where he works is K-8, Frond would be a better fit for ''[[ExaggeratedTrope preschoolers]]''.
145	* Ms. Doe, the scoutmaster for the Squirrel Scouts in ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'', acts more like a kindergarten teacher than a scout leader.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'':
147	** In the episode "[[Recap/DariaS5E06 Lucky Strike]]", Mr. [=DeMartino=]'s replacement is so senile that she actually believes that the senior class ''are'' little kids, and treats them as such.
148	--->"Here are your tests. I don't think I've ever written so many A's. You're the smartest -- and ''biggest'' -- first graders I've ever had."
149	** Mr. O'Neill has shades of this as well. To his credit, he does acknowledge that he's teaching young adults here, but he's such a HippieTeacher that he spends all his time worrying about their self-esteem and walking on eggshells around them.
150	** Mr. [=DeMartino=] is a sort of odd version--he's a SternTeacher with a HairTriggerTemper, but ''WesternAnimation/DariaIsItFallYet'' shows that [[OneOfTheKids he connects with younger children]] far better than he does with most teens, mostly because of the way that he ''[[NoIndoorVoice very loudly]]'' voices their own frustrations.
151	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s school counselor Mr. Shellacky straddles this trope and HippieTeacher, often suggesting hugs, and talks about almost everything (including his computers and the current problems Doug has) in a sing-song voice and giving pet names. He also often uses babyish phrases like "Mr. Computer had a little tummy-ache."
152	* Peppy Happy Gary and Betty from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' run an institution called "Flappy Bob's Learnatorium". It's meant for kids of all ages, but they seem to either not realize or care -- everyone's a five-year-old in their mind, even the ten-year-old protagonist or [[StarfishAliens that octopus kid who just dropped through the roof]]. They also take safety regulations to levels [[ExaggeratedTrope that would be outright ludicrous even for actual kindergartners]]. Their regulations are so restrictive that they wind up inadvertently sucking all the fun out of the activity. For example, their favorite "safety" tactic is to stuff their charges into safety suits that are heavily padded to the point that you can't even ''move'' in them. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint The suits are always intended for activities where you have to move.]]
153	-->'''Timmy:''' ''[upon being thrown into a ball pit by them while wearing one of the suits and left to sink]'' Am I having fun yet?
154	* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Charlie treats the sinners at her hotel as misbehaving children rather than the adult criminals they are. Best shown when she has a new guest introduce himself via a rhyming and clapping game.
155	%%* "Miss Go" ([[TheDragon Shego]] temporarily [[MirrorMoralityMachine turned good]]) acts like this in one ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
156	* Zigzagged on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Cheerilee is the only teacher we ever see, though it's implied that there are more. The show likes to abuse VagueAge as much as possible, but it's implied that her students are of puberty age. She talks like a kindergarten teacher to them, but explains setting concepts (like history and biology) more akin to a middle school teacher, and on the blackboard she often has [[GeniusBonus advanced planetary physics equations]]. Given the moderately anachronistic old-timey feel of Equestria, this may be a nod to the old one-room schoolhouses where one teacher taught all ages and all subjects at different levels.
157	* Somewhat inverted in ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls''. Ms. Keane, an actual Kindergarten teacher, usually acts like a normal teacher for that grade. However, she sometimes teaches overly advanced subjects to her five-year-olds.
158	* Ms. Grotke in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' has the voice, but is otherwise more of a HippieTeacher. The reason she has the voice is because Allyce Beasley ''did'' talk to kindergartners in her capacity as the {{continuity announce\|ment}}r for Creator/DisneyChannel's Playhouse Disney block.
159	* Both subverted and inverted (at various times) by Mr. Garrison of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Although Garrison uses a puppet in his third-grade class, he doesn't treat his students like kindergartners otherwise (he tends more toward "verbally abusive"). Later, when he's demoted to kindergarten teacher, he does things like show them how to put a condom on. Someone else. With your mouth.
160	* Hilariously inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E21ThePTADisbands The PTA Disbands]]". When an agreement can't be reached in the teachers' strike, Professor Frink is assigned to work as a Kindergarten teacher [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5QbrRRMg20 and tries using a corn popper to teach them physics]].
161	* Arcee in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', but it's not her fault [[spoiler: -- the Decepticons screwed with her programming while looking for information, causing her to think she really ''was'' teaching the Cybertron equivalent of kindergarten again.]]
162	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MisplacedKindergartenTeacher