Back in high school, I had this teacher for a semester of history who was, without a doubt, the biggest jerk I’ve ever encountered as a teacher. He was a coach, and was only teaching the class because there was no one else. He would SCREAM at us for no reason, and I always remembered the veins on his neck and forehead would get HUGE, they were so cartoon-like, I had to draw him in the act of screaming several times because it amused me so much.
I pretty much stayed out of his way successfully – we basically did nothing but read a chapter each day, and do the questions at the end and turn them in. I made perfect grades through his class, so he never yelled at me or anything. He did, however, liked to tease me that I never talked or spoke up, and nicknamed me Loquacious. This would have been amusing if not for the fact he brought it up and teased me about it everyday.
But anyway, my point –at the beginning of the semester, none of us knew this guy was so crazy and weird, obviously. The first day of class he set us to reading the first chapter – no problem. Well I got done with it in about 15-20 minutes or so. I did the questions and got up, took them to his desk and handed them to him.
He looked up at me, and said in this tone of voice like he thought I was trying to be a little smartass, “You’re finished?” I said yes, sir. He said, “What are you, a speed-reader?” I had no idea of his jerkwad attitude at that point – I thought he was honestly asking me, so I answered honestly, “Yes, sir.”
I guess he didn’t know what to say to that, because by that point he had looked at the sheet with my answers and seen I had actually, truly answered them, so I was allowed to sit back down and read my own book I’d brought. I guess he thought reading chapter would take up the entire hour of the class (and it did, for most everybody else in that particular class), and was a bit miffed I’d finished so quickly. But he got used to it, and I spent most of everyday reading my own books.
I don’t know what just made me think of that, but I wanted to share.