Reddish Musings

My Economics Teacher (name removed).

In addition to the class we had yesterday on domestic abuse, I talked to the teacher about an incident that occurred in my high school Senior Year. I don't know if it still is going on or not, and I'm trying to figure it out, but you'll see why later.

In AP Economics (the equivalent of Honors classes these days, I believe), there was a teacher who had come from an alternative school where he was beloved by students all over to teach us in our multi-million-dollar school building in a nice school district. I'm sure money had nothing to do with him accepting the position.

I'm not going to discredit teachers who work in the alternative-school environment, but all I'm saying is I have NO idea how he survived in that environment without killing people. Anyway.

So, Economics is annoying. I'll admit it. It's one graph and one principle that are applied to a bunch of different things. I didn't try as hard as I could have in that class, but I did adequately in it. It was Senior Year, I was graduating when the class was over, I didn't really care that much. That's fair to say, and for the sake of fair argument, I'll fault myself on it.

But I am not a disrespectful student. I did not sleep in class. I kept talking to a minimum, when we're done with lecture or whatever (until later on, but I'll explain this progression later). My "not caring" generally just comes out in not doing the readings and just getting by (and "getting by" in high school was making a B on a test).

So, what could the problem really be? This teacher was praised high and low for being "awesome" and "funny" by people I respected in both camps. So... what happened? When I got to class, all I saw was an old man who was trying desperately to be considered cool, and would do whatever it took to suck up to the "cool" kids.

This included praising people who slept in class instead of people who paid attention consistently. Picking on kids that the cool kids picked on. Wearing tattoo sleeves on Halloween, as well as a grill, or whatever it is that goes in your mouth and makes your teeth all shiny. Also, gloating about living in a rich neighborhood. When pressed for an address, he gave us a fake one.

I don't know what this man is like outside of school, I will not judge his character entirely. All I know is that I could not respect him as the year went on. His teaching was dull (but the subject matter is dull, so I didn't fault him that), but the problem lied much deeper than superficial interest levels and how badly he pretended to be cool. Which, incidentally, is enough reason for me to dislike a teacher. I really have a hard time respecting teachers who care more about being liked than teaching. But that's a different matter.

He was passive aggressive in the worst way: Spiteful to the students, young adults, he had in his classroom, as well as to the faculty he worked alongside in the school.

I don't know what order these incidents occurred in anymore, it's been 2 years, but they all stand out clearly in my mind. One of the first troubling things was when he threw a half-full water bottle at a student in the back.

A teacher I loved the year before had tossed a white-board eraser at a student who was sleeping during the lecture. There is a fundamental difference in throwing something that weighs less than a pound, and throwing a bottle half-full of water.

I shrugged it off, feeling just a little uncomfortable.

Later on, I witnessed other more disturbing things. I began seeking someone to talk to about it, because I was more and more feeling unsettled by the events that were unfolding. Unfortunately, I can't recall many of the things that jumped out at me, but I know I told the head of the social studies department, a friend of mine and a past teacher of mine.

However, two other events are still pretty clear in my head.

To preface this, I was also enrolled in English IV AP, taught by another friend or so of mine. She was a harsh teacher, but she was fair. If you followed her rules and her groundwork for papers, then things would turn out fine, and she really improved a lot of my form for writing (formally, I still write blogs pretty informally, I'm sure you've noticed). One of her key policies was if you used passive verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) in a paper, you would be dropped quite a few points.

So, someone made fun of The Economics Teacher or pointed out something about grammar, and likened him to my English teacher.

His response: "If I were her, I would shoot myself."

This bothered me, a lot. A whole lot. I told her. She told me later that she confronted him about it, and he apparently knew it was me.

At this point, I had ratted him out to two sources, and he was not a fan of mine. In class, it had become a thing where, even if I tried to answer a question, he would ignore my raised hand over one of the other kids. He wouldn't respond to my questions. There was a feeling that I was unwelcome in his class.

I shrugged and continued on, giving up on trying to answer questions, and sticking to reading what notes I needed and passing his tests fine. I passed notes with a friend of mine, the only other person who had a problem with the way he was behaving in class. Everyone else didn't seem to think his comments were a problem, or at all worrisome. He was just "joking" after all.

So, what part of this next one is joking?

We had a lockdown drill at our school one day - Where you turn off the lights, lock the door, and hide in a corner with no windows. This test was developed after the school shootings became more commonplace, and is supposed to be the response when an unwelcome visitor is in the school, for whatever reason.

There was one student he enjoyed poking fun at. I don't know if they had a relationship outside of class or not, but this comment is unforgivable, regardless.

He said, as we huddled into the corner:

"I hope they shoot you first."

I told someone about this one as well, and finished the semester, graduated, and moved on, putting the jerk behind me.

My friend, the one ally I had in the class, called me when the next semester started, letting me know that one of her friends had his class that time around, and that he had pointedly showed the class where we had sat the semester before, and told the class that we were "obnoxious." That we would "fail in life and college."

I drove to the school the next day and asked to speak to the principal. When told he was busy, I laid out everything I had seen and heard to the secretary, and she said she would pass it along.

I never heard another word about it, and when hearing these things, my professor told me to follow up on it and make sure it was dealt with.

Am I crazy? I don't know. I'll look into it, I guess. But I had to lay this stuff out, for memory's sake. It could be that I just did get the wrong vibe from a teacher I disliked... but I've had a lack of respect for teachers without thinking they were going to actually harm students before, so this sure seems different.

As for his comments about me and my friend? I don't necessarily believe they were spoken with those words or that tone, but it's possible. The reporter had no real need to make it up to fuel our anger at the man, but since it's hard to validate, I'm just adding it for maybe, not for fact. The fact that it doesn't surprise me if it is true should speak for itself, though.

Now, dinner time!