Version Out-Of-Control

(This story takes place in my high school web design class a few years ago. It’s the first day and we’re already on the computer working with the web design program. Instead of instructing, the teacher gives us all copies of the instruction manual. I get to page three when I discover a problem.)

Me: “Excuse me, [Teacher], but I can’t find the tool the book is asking me to use. It doesn’t seem to be here.”

(Now, the teacher is near blind and near deaf so it takes a little bit of repetition before she understands what I am saying.)

Teacher: “Well, keep looking. It has to be in there somewhere.”

(I look again, and this time I notice what the real problem is.)

Me: “Um, [Teacher], there’s no way we can finish this first assignment.”

Teacher: “Well, why not?”

Me: “Our version of the program is two years older than the version this book is for. A lot of this stuff isn’t even in our version.”

Teacher: “Oh, well just try to figure it out.”

(As this was impossible the entire class spent the rest of the quarter browsing random Wikipedia articles. Somehow I still got an ‘A’ in the class.)