But I'm Not Bitter

Generally I was well liked by my teachers from kindergarten to BYU with a few exceptions.

One exception was my jr. high home economics teacher. We met under unfortunate circumstances before I ever had her as a teacher and I can only conclude that this situation made her hate me for my entire jr. high school career.

One day during lunch hour, I was standing outside with my friends. Everyone just hung out on the school grounds. There were fields (not a place you're likely to just stand around in when they're full of snow), limited sidewalks, and road/parking lots. Most kids stood in the road since people generally didn't drive on it anyway. If the odd car came around, we'd move out of the way.


So there I was, standing with my friends. (Refer to satellite image, point A.) A car came around the corner (see my black car on the satellite image?). It went into the first row of parking. (Refer to black dotted line and X.) Several minutes later, another car came around the corner. I expected it to also park in the first row of parking and I thought nothing of it. A couple moments later, I noticed that it was right in front of me because it was headed to the second row of parking. My friends had already moved out of the way, and as the teacher glared at me, I calmly moved out of the way as well. And then I thought nothing of it. Until the teacher marched right up to me, pointed her bony finger, and said, "Next time you want to play chicken, you may not be so lucky."

Whoa. Whoa. I was not playing chicken. I just didn't see her till she was in front of me. And then I moved. I really didn't think it was such a big deal. Of course, she stormed away before I was able to say anything to her.

And then in both 7th and 8th grade home economics, she treated me like crap and I received Cs (and this was in Canada where C = 60-69 %, so basically the equivalent of the American D).

What the...? Me? Cs? In home ec? That's umpossible!

In fact, at the awards ceremony at the end of each year, badges were awarded to everyone in the school for almost every imaginable reason. When the home ec badges were announced, pretty much the whole school was called up individually by name to receive the badge for getting an A in home ec. And I was left sitting in the audience with the greasers and tekkers (a derogatory Northern Ontario term).

Moral of the story? "Next time you may not be so lucky" turns out to be "Even though you almost failed me in my home ec classes, I'm a domestic goddess and professional designer, so take that."

10 comments:

ambrosia ananas said...

Wow. Some people should *not* be teachers.

bedelia said...

I had an English teacher my senior who gave me low B's all year long and always acted like my writing was horrible. She posted the best ones on the wall. Then my little sister had her 4 years later and told me that she used several of my papers as examples of how to write well. One time she also accused me of plagiarism because apparently it sounded better than what I could possibly write. Jerk. Really, some people should not be teachers.

MTDA said...

We should organize a big 'Kathie Lee, Carnival Cruises' like production number of "If she could see me now"

You could wear something glittery...anyway...That would show her.

Anonymous said...

You should have come to Golden Avenue. Everyone was very nice there.

Carina said...

What is it with Junior High Home Economics teachers? I had a beast of a teacher as well.

Unknown said...

Equivalent to an American D? I can't speak for anyone else, but in my classes, a D was usually 50–63 percent. A C was 64–77 or some such.

I'm still bitter about several of my teachers, too.

Anonymous said...

I hated her too. She perfected the "are you serious? You must be an idiot" look and she gave it to me many, many times. I never got a Beattie bar for Home Ec either...*sniffle, sniffle*

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I think everybody has had one of these. A couple of months ago I lay in bed one night and seriously contemplated sending mine a nasty letter explaining to her just how badly she had messed me up psychologically and how I wished nothing but the worst for her.


The letter still isn't out of the realm of possibility. Hag.

Shop Girl* said...

Mine was my grade 9/10 French teacher (whom I hated so badly that I stopped taking French and am now KICKING myself for it...)

Anyway, he was horrible. He took an instant disliking to me and was a brute the whole year. For example, if myself and 5 other people with their hands raised in question, he would answer every one of them BUT mine. He put me in the back and ignored me.

He is exactly the type of educator that I vow NOT to be.

A said...

Alright, as for my two (I mean twenty-five) cents...I also had a Jr. High Home Ec teacher who for whatever random reason decided she hated my whole table. Two of the girls, maybe, but all 5 of us? Completely unjust. She was really mean to us and would say things to the whole class about our bad examples and so on. One day we went to talk to the principal about it and she basically nodded her head, did nothing, and send us to class with a late excuse slip. The teacher then hated us more because we all came in late together...nevermind that we had a note from the principal herself. A few days after that, I have no idea what clicked in her air head that she hadn't noticed before but she realized she knew my mom. My mom was one of her Young Women's leaders like 20 years earlier or something. And then, knowing her unjust ways, she all of the sudden started kissing up to me like crazy. The grand thing was that I could be sarcastic or sassy to her after that and instead of taking away points she would just laugh. I think her real problem was that she was the classic old maid teacher who was bitter that she wasn't married and took it out on all of us.