caught not cheating
in my early educational years, there were plenty of moments i could have been caught behaving in punishable ways. "doing homework with friends" which was a loose translation of "can i copy your homework, i didn't do mine", writing mnemonic devices on my hand for the science test just in case i couldn't remember them under pressure. i did these things from time to time, not often, but enough. usually without teacher or parental detection. i was proud of the fact that i was generally well-behaved and always relieved when i didn't get caught during a temporary lapse. the fact that i didn't get caught when i was bad always made it that much more frustrating when i was accused of cheating when i didn't. is there anything worse in the world than being accused of cheating when you didn't? i don't think so. i still feel the desperation mounting. the tightening in my chest. the clenching of my jaw. the pleading eyebrows. desperation. desperation to be trusted, to be believed. often this kind of desperation can make one downright confessional. "i cheated on the science test, i didn't read the history chapter, i wasn't really sick on art day! but i did NOT copy the bookcover for my book report!" that's what i was accused of. fifth grade again. that teacher hated me. it was straight up public humiliation at every possible opportunity. i was home sick one day and apparently while i was gone, my teacher had decided that since i couldn't paint a bear or draw a gigantic garfield i must not be able to write either. he concluded after reading my book report on "Hollywood Jr. High" (a highly recommended piece of literature from the early 1980's) that i couldn't have written a summary of such quality, therefore i must have copied it off of the back of the book. to add insult to injury, he read my entire book report aloud to my class in my absence, to find out if my peers agreed with his conclusion. to this day, i am angry that he never did believe me. i didn't copy the back of that g.d. book. writing was the one thing i COULD do! at least until 1985.
posted by shelly at 1/28/2006 03:46:00 PM
2 Comments:
UGH...I had this heinous teacher as well. He was a jerk and now, as a teacher, I think back on his antics and he was a bad teacher. I recall all the art, but I also recall the backgammon tournements and four square tournements. It must have been a trade off.. I could manage the art part of his touture but failed miserably when it came to the physical challenge of four square.
backgammon tournaments and four square are the only reasons i didn't throw myself off the top of the blue water tower that year! and yes, he was a bad teacher. and he is one of the primary reasons my brother was such an asshole.
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