Unfiltered Story #32538

[I’m what you would call the “teacher’s pet” in my freshman year World History class. I ace all his assignments, sit at the front of the room, and generally just love to learn as History of all kinds is my favorite subject. I finished my World History final two classes prior and am now finishing up my French I final when my history teacher knocks on the door to the French class.]

Mr. N: Excuse me, Madame G, I need to interrupt your class for a moment.

[She allows him to.]

Mr. N: I just want to say that of all my students, only [My name] aced the entire test, even the extra credit questions.

[I’m flushing at this point, highly embarrassed but also proud of myself.]

Mr. N: [My name], if you want to apply for honors’ history, I’ll have your recommendation letter ready at the end of the day.

[Fast forward to the following school year. I’m now a sophomore and have stayed behind to catch up on an English assignment I missed. Mr. N is still teaching and I decide to pay him a visit since I finished early. He’s in the middle of doing an after school make up test with another kid who has failed it, yet again.]

Mr. N: [My name]! Come here and tell him what prejudice is.

[Considering we are surrounded by prejudiced people every day, I am surprised this kid doesn’t know what it means. He doesn’t understand what it means, which is inhibiting him from understanding the rest of the test. Keep in mind, Mr. N doesn’t like long-winded responses. Short but sweet was how he taught us to respond to questions.]

Me: It’s a type of bias against certain people, while you show favoritism toward other people.

Mr. N: There you go. And she hasn’t been in my class in a year.

[The last I heard, he was still teaching at my old high school but it’s been five years since I’ve checked. He was, and remains to be, the only teacher that ever saw the potential in me and nourished it, harvesting it into a nugget of positive feeling that I still recount to this day when I’m feeling bad. Thanks Mr. N!!!]