Re: Horrible Horrible Teachers
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 6:37 am
All right, here's my entry in this thread.
I've done my best to forget the bad teachers... and the fact that I gradutated almost two decades ago have blurred the memories of several teachers out of my mind. However, there was this one teacher that I had in college that was just so, so, so very bad. So bad it was funny bad. My current roomie Paul used to like to write short stories, as did I. We decided to take a college course together for creative writing. After the class was done, all the students couldn't wait for the teacher to leave and talk amongst each other because we truly learned more from each other's criticisms than from anything she ever offered.
She had some incredibly irrational hang ups. They seemed to come out of nowhere, and as we read aloud our short stories she's stop us and tell us "that doesn't seem realistic". She did this to me a few times when two guys who were friends were actually opening up and confessing somethings that were both troubling them personally. She didn't believe that guys would ever do this. That unless they were harassing and bullying one another around, they weren't acting like guys.
However, the funniest instance of her saying "that doesn't seem realistic" happened one night by coincidence and perfect comedic timing. A young lady was reading out loud a story, and in the story a character was named Amanda. The teacher let her read for a little bit, but stopped her about ten minutes in and said that she didn't think that people would name their child Amanda. Those are her actual words. Other students defended the writer, saying that they didn't think it was so strange. The teacher didn't agree, but you could see she was having a tough time not saying something about the character's name. That was silly and odd enough, but it went on. The next person who read starting reading their story out loud, but then gave a pause. He looked at the teacher and apologized, because he too had named a character in his story Amanda. The teacher huffed in a very unprofessional manner, rolled her eyes, and just told him to continue.
I thought the way the teacher behaved was entirely inapproprate, so I went about illustrating this point to her. By some odd alignment of the stars, I too had written a story with the main character going by the name of 'Mandy'. Hey, what can I say, my mother liked Barry Manilow and it sunk in. Well, I started very animatedly pulling my bookbag up onto my desk, getting out my large eraser, and erasing rather quickly and animatedly at my story. I did this deliberately to get the teacher's attention, and when she stared at me I looked up at her and spoke in the most deadpan tone I could. "I have to think of a name other than Mandy." A few people in the class snickered. Without missing a beat, Paul spoke up and said, "Chris, when you're done with that eraser, I need to borrow it."
The teacher literately threw the folder in her hands up in the air, letting the papers inside flutter to the ground. She grumbled and didn't fight us on the fact that since clearly we all felt that Amanda or Mandy was an appropriate name, she wouldn't continue to fight it. It was evident she still felt she was in the right, but wouldn't struggle against it any further. After she left, the door barely swung shut before the entire class laughed our asses off at her.
I've done my best to forget the bad teachers... and the fact that I gradutated almost two decades ago have blurred the memories of several teachers out of my mind. However, there was this one teacher that I had in college that was just so, so, so very bad. So bad it was funny bad. My current roomie Paul used to like to write short stories, as did I. We decided to take a college course together for creative writing. After the class was done, all the students couldn't wait for the teacher to leave and talk amongst each other because we truly learned more from each other's criticisms than from anything she ever offered.
She had some incredibly irrational hang ups. They seemed to come out of nowhere, and as we read aloud our short stories she's stop us and tell us "that doesn't seem realistic". She did this to me a few times when two guys who were friends were actually opening up and confessing somethings that were both troubling them personally. She didn't believe that guys would ever do this. That unless they were harassing and bullying one another around, they weren't acting like guys.
However, the funniest instance of her saying "that doesn't seem realistic" happened one night by coincidence and perfect comedic timing. A young lady was reading out loud a story, and in the story a character was named Amanda. The teacher let her read for a little bit, but stopped her about ten minutes in and said that she didn't think that people would name their child Amanda. Those are her actual words. Other students defended the writer, saying that they didn't think it was so strange. The teacher didn't agree, but you could see she was having a tough time not saying something about the character's name. That was silly and odd enough, but it went on. The next person who read starting reading their story out loud, but then gave a pause. He looked at the teacher and apologized, because he too had named a character in his story Amanda. The teacher huffed in a very unprofessional manner, rolled her eyes, and just told him to continue.
I thought the way the teacher behaved was entirely inapproprate, so I went about illustrating this point to her. By some odd alignment of the stars, I too had written a story with the main character going by the name of 'Mandy'. Hey, what can I say, my mother liked Barry Manilow and it sunk in. Well, I started very animatedly pulling my bookbag up onto my desk, getting out my large eraser, and erasing rather quickly and animatedly at my story. I did this deliberately to get the teacher's attention, and when she stared at me I looked up at her and spoke in the most deadpan tone I could. "I have to think of a name other than Mandy." A few people in the class snickered. Without missing a beat, Paul spoke up and said, "Chris, when you're done with that eraser, I need to borrow it."
The teacher literately threw the folder in her hands up in the air, letting the papers inside flutter to the ground. She grumbled and didn't fight us on the fact that since clearly we all felt that Amanda or Mandy was an appropriate name, she wouldn't continue to fight it. It was evident she still felt she was in the right, but wouldn't struggle against it any further. After she left, the door barely swung shut before the entire class laughed our asses off at her.