He stormed into his 9th grade English classroom un expectantly. He wasn’t a big man, perhaps 5’4” with a slight frame. He had referred to his time in the ‘ring’; I suspect he was a lightweight. He had left the the class unsupervised, even during tests. In retrospect the cheating that went on was pervasive, shameful and made me uncomfortable. He was the football coach and apparently a busy man with things to do; Teaching english clearly wasn’t a priority. This memorable day the un supervised students were in a particularly rowdy mood. Screaming and carrying on like kids will do. He caught them at it, he was immediately angry and out of control. I was a quiet guy, not participating in the ruckus and was taught cheating wasn’t something good people did. I was sitting there quietly, doing nothing in particular, when he walked in -I made a regrettable mistake -I opened the textbook. He looked at me He said “its too late for that now”. I was a little guy, my growth spurt would come over the next three years - 50lbs and several inches. He approached grabbed me by the collar, lifted me and proceeded to throw me around the room.
My desk was overturned during the fray. I can’t say he hurt me; I was more shocked than anything. Growing up with 3 brothers meant I had learned to ‘mix it up’ and be sturdy. A friend who sat behind me later confessed “I almost wet myself because I thought he was coming for me”. Thanks Frank. It was over in a few seconds and then, amazingly, the lightweight left. I dusted myself off, righted my desk and did what people in shock often do..sat silently as did the rest of the class. When I got home my Dad shocked me and said “I hear you had a little run in with Mr. Weiss”. No more was said by anyone about the misadventure.
You can imagine I’ve pondered about the incident for years- I didn’t know it at the time but the damage done by Mr. Weiss did wasn’t solely to me . We all had been cheated of precious time to learn on what 9th graders should lean..how better to communicate with the written word. I’ve come to learn there are few things as more important.
Six years later a gifted and dedicated A PhD from the university of Illinois would do a line by line, word by word review of my fist real college paper. Only then did i realize just how unskilled a communicator I was. You see my University had decided no one would graduate who couldn’t write a decent essay. Amazingly I made it through, thought I took great effort with considerable stress.
Mr. Weiss was a lightweight indeed.
How things have changed.
My desk was overturned during the fray. I can’t say he hurt me; I was more shocked than anything. Growing up with 3 brothers meant I had learned to ‘mix it up’ and be sturdy. A friend who sat behind me later confessed “I almost wet myself because I thought he was coming for me”. Thanks Frank. It was over in a few seconds and then, amazingly, the lightweight left. I dusted myself off, righted my desk and did what people in shock often do..sat silently as did the rest of the class. When I got home my Dad shocked me and said “I hear you had a little run in with Mr. Weiss”. No more was said by anyone about the misadventure.
You can imagine I’ve pondered about the incident for years- I didn’t know it at the time but the damage done by Mr. Weiss did wasn’t solely to me . We all had been cheated of precious time to learn on what 9th graders should lean..how better to communicate with the written word. I’ve come to learn there are few things as more important.
Six years later a gifted and dedicated A PhD from the university of Illinois would do a line by line, word by word review of my fist real college paper. Only then did i realize just how unskilled a communicator I was. You see my University had decided no one would graduate who couldn’t write a decent essay. Amazingly I made it through, thought I took great effort with considerable stress.
Mr. Weiss was a lightweight indeed.
How things have changed.
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Well, we get a substitute that is not even an English teacher... we have no assignments for the rest of the semester....
