Subj : Checking in
To   : MIKE POWELL
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Fri Jan 07 2022 01:31:00

RM>> Reminds me of something dumb.. Back in school once a teacher told us you co
  >> never properly use the word "ain't" in a sentence.. I put up my hand and to
  >> her I could.. We argued momentarily until she finally challenged me to do i
  >> and I said, The teacher failed me for using the word "ain't" in a sentence.
  >>
  >> Have I ever mentioned I wasn't all that popular with some of my teachers?

MP>That sounds familiar.  I usually got on with teachers, but I had an English
  >teacher one year in high school (the only year, the other three years were
  >the same teacher!) who did not like me much.  I went to school in "the
  >city" but was raised by parents who came from smaller towns.  I don't think
  >she liked my accent or sense of humor!

I was saving to buy my first big nasty motorcycle when I was in Grade 9 (age
14) and wore Harley T-Shirts and studded jeans and such and my math teacher
took an instant hate of me.. For some reason his dislike of me translated to
him I was stupid. Much longer story short, one day he gave a Grade 13 math
question to the class to try to solve. I did it in my head in a few minutes
over lunch. The next day I got to class legitimately late and when asked, it
turned out I was the only person who got the answer. He asked to see my work
and I told him I did it in my head.. The bell went off just as he was about to
explode.. apparently he filled 3 black boards showing the class how to do it.
At the end of the year for some unknown reason he pulled me aside and said I
don't know how you passed math this year but you'll never do it next year..

Nothing like encouragement from your teachers..

Much longer story totally truncated, Grade 10.. I hated the LONG algebra
questions we got for homework and figured there had to be an easier way, so I
spent one Sunday looking over the questions backwards and forwards and figured
out a 'shortcut' to get the answers.. tested out as 100% reliable on multiple
questions. Got caught by my new math teacher using that one day and he asked
me who showed me how to do that.. I made it up!.. So he gave me a much more
complex question and told me to do it.. I puzzled over it for 30 seconds or so
and came up with the correct answer.. He informed me what I had just done was
second year university level calculus.

I was mildly miffed that I hadn't actually invented something new..

Okay.. the punch line (if you're still awake).  That year my old math teacher
was transferred into my new school as the new head of the math department.
He ran into me walking down the hall talking with my new math teacher and
rather snidely asked him how I was doing in math THIS year..

I wish we'd had smart phones back then so I could have recorded his reaction
to what my teacher told him..    Sometimes you do get even..   B)

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