For people who are really good with words, middle school is when you either get the passion beaten out of you like this, or you encounter a teacher who is a Difficult Person, but they like you and you gain their powers

I once got a C- on an essay, but for extra credit we could submit that paper to a state essay contest. I was a state finalist in that contest, with my only revision from the class-submitted version being spell checking Britan->Britain.

Fuck you, Mrs Wickham.

Checks out

Started in a new school. Had to begin attending before I actually moved to the new house. First class the teacher says I am to spend the first week observing the class, and getting an idea how it functions. I will not be required to participate, or do work, until the start of the next week. At the end of that week he calls me over to his desk and, in a clearly annoyed tone, asks me why I had done no work that week. So I told him he said I wasn’t supposed to, not until the upcoming Monday. He then tells me I should have taken the initiative to do work anyway, even when told I didn’t have too. This showed I was lazy, and then he said I was being a smart ass for “using his words against him” for reminding him what the instruction, he gave me, was.

So I said, if you tell people not to do something, don’t expect them to do it. I can’t just know that they want the opposite of what is asked for. So he said he is gonna call my parents and tell them all about this. Then he asks for my phone number. I didn’t know it, we got into the new house the night before and all we had was suitcases, boxes, and mattresses on floors. So he tells me that trying to hide it won’t help, the office will have my number. So I tell him to get it from them, as I didn’t know the phone number yet. He calls my mom, and tells her “You know, your son acted like he didn’t know his own phone number, like that would stop me from calling” and my mom informs him that the phone was activated 2 days ago, and that I don’t know it. Then she said he huffed and then said “well the problem is, he didn’t do any of the work this week”. and she then told him I was informed not to, in fact, he put it in writing, and sent the outline of what he expected from me, home, on my first day.

This motherfucker held a grudge until the day I no longer saw him again. He even lied about the situation to other teachers, so when I started their classes, I got a lot of “Oh, Mr. Heckman (real name, fuck him) told me about you” in a sardonic tone. This started a 2.5 year shit storm with this school, that ended with them paying my tuition to go somewhere else.

Too many teachers assume if they admit they were wrong, the students will get more insolent, as if sensing weakness. I’ve briefly been an assistant teacher in a middle school, and I found that on the contrary, students seem to appreciate an earnest admission of mistake and calmly accept the apology. Even some students that would be insolent in other situations. When it’s clear you’re wrong and the student knows it, pretending you’re right won’t do any good. Acting in a respectable manner will get you more respect.

Had an English teacher do kinda this to me once. We presented our research paper to the class, teacher tells me the birthday of the dude I’m presenting on, I correct her like; “bitch, dis my mf research paper! I know my dudes fuckin birthday, it the one damn slide I memorized!” (Paraphrasing, but the meaning was there, expertly and subtly disguised of course.) She then proceeds to tell me I must be wrong and failed my whole project, my magnum opus of eighth grade.

P.S. Frank Lloyd Wright was born June 8, 1867 in Wisconsin, not 1701 like some cranky, funny smellin old English teacher insists upon

Wins argument

“Quit being a sore loser”