The most interesting aspect of my teachers looking back now, is how much my path was shaped by avoiding their discriminatory behavior and the weird gaslighting

The most interesting aspect of my teachers looking back now, is how much my path was shaped by avoiding their discriminatory behavior and the weird gaslighting effect of the teachers all being the power while imagining themselves fighting against it. Many of my teachers were strongly biased against boys, and this bias was more severe the more stereotypically male you were. A quiet girl arriving to class a minute late would be excused without comment, a boy would be made to explain himself, a boy on the football team would be given a punishment. This extended to all things- grading, treatment during discussions, treatment for absences due to illness, etc. Many teachers seemed to believe they were characters in an 80s movie where jocks got away with everything, and so in turn they were far more strict and adversarial with students who fit that mold. The reality was living in a system where you were discriminated against, while being told the discriminatory actions were corrective for events that happened to other people before you were born. I pursued STEM because grading was objective in those classes, it didn't matter if the math teacher disliked you if you solved the problem correctly, whereas no matter how good your English assignment was a teacher could arbitrarily deduct points. Similarly, I learned to code switch into a more docile, sensitive and deferential persona around liberal arts teachers to maintain the ability to earn an A.