The Audacity of Youth

Took a road I rarely use this afternoon and it reminded me of something.

At the end of junior year the French 4 AP teacher asked me if I was going to take French 5. I told her I wasn’t because I was a little burnt out on French. She encouraged me to continue on to French 5 AP lit and promised she’d make it fun. I really liked her so I said okay.

Cut to a month or so later when I get my schedule and her name is nowhere on it. I called - I think? Somehow I got in touch with a classmate to ask if she knew what the hell was going on. She tells me the teacher has retired. How do you know, I ask. She lives in the house behind me and she mentioned it in passing.

Tell me why I had the nerve to knock on this lady’s door to ask how she could retire when she’d convinced me to continue with a subject I was so done with?!?

She explained she’d thought it over and decided it was time to retire and spend more time with her partner. Points to her for even entertaining my questions. In the moment I acknowledged that someone who’d been teaching for so long should get to retire whenever they pleased.

That goodwill evaporated quickly once classes started. The teacher who was assigned to cover the class had to take a crash course over the summer on French 5 AP lit and it was obvious. At the end of the first quarter a group of us met with the principal to complain that we weren’t actually learning the material that would prepare us for the AP exam. He thanked us for the feedback and said he’d take it under consideration for the following year.

By mid-year half the class had transferred out. A few kids who couldn’t transfer were allowed to treat that period as study hall. Because of my other classes I couldn’t switch out so I had to stay for the entire year. On some level I felt bad for her because it couldn’t have been easy or felt good to have a bunch of 17 year olds bitching about you. But given that I hadn’t really wanted to be in the class to begin with and the class felt like such a waste of time I’m sure I was a pill to interact with. It didn’t help that she accused me of stealing the French dictionary I used every day. Even when I explained that I had bought it from the school when they got newer editions she wanted to take it from me. I told her there was no way I was giving her a book I’d paid for.

Yes, I still have the dictionary. I paid for it after all.

Also, whenever someone tells me I’m a lot and I want to deny it i need to remember this story. 😂😂

Posted on 1/9/2025 | 0 comments | Dailies