A Peculiar Experience with My High School Teacher
I had a high school trigonometry teacher who reminded me a lot of Judge Judy—her temperament and attitude were quite similar, and she even bore a slight resemblance to her. To illustrate her difficult personality, there was one day when we were reviewing a test. I was called out in front of the whole class for not having my test out to correct my answers. Ironically, I had aced the test and had nothing to fix. You’d think she would have remembered that, but instead, she was enraged with me for not being prepared. In retrospect, I wish I’d confronted her about my perfect score, but I opted to avoid more trouble.
This teacher had a unique approach to lessons—she would dictate notes that we were expected to copy down. About every four weeks, she did something quite bizarre that I’ve never seen from any other teacher: she took our notes and locked them away in a filing cabinet. Each of us had our own file, and once she locked them up, we couldn’t refer back to them not even for the final exam that would cover all the material. One of my friends asked her about retrieving our notes for the final, and she flatly told him no. He was furious and even considered going to the principal over it, though I’m not sure if he actually followed through.
As luck would have it, I missed class on the last day she collected our notes, and since I never turned mine in, I still had study material for the final. She didn’t seem to notice at all. So, what was even the point of locking them up? You might think she intended to grade us on our note-taking skills, but that never happened. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a teacher like this?
Wow, that sounds like such a frustrating experience! It’s really tough to deal with teachers who don’t seem to respect their students or recognize their efforts. The note-locking policy seems especially bizarre and counterproductive, especially since it would just create more stress for everyone. It’s great that you were able to hold onto your study material despite missing that last day, but I can understand why it would feel unjust that she made such a big deal about something that didn’t actually seem to have any real purpose. Unfortunately, it sounds like your teacher was more focused on control than on helping students learn. Hopefully, your future classes have been better! Have you had any other memorable experiences with teachers, good or bad?