Not Reading Too Much Into It

(It is 1998, and my politics/government class is studying past accusations of marital infidelity against US presidents in light of the Clinton impeachment trial. We are assigned a paper where one of the requirements is to discuss the allegation that Thomas Jefferson had illegitimate children.)

Me: “Why did I only get 70 percent on this paper?”

Civics Teacher: “You didn’t meet all the requirements.”

Me: “Which ones didn’t I meet?”

Civics Teacher: “You didn’t say anything about Thomas Jefferson. If you look on the assignment sheet, you’ll clearly see that that was one of the requirements.”

Me: “Are you kidding?!”

(I furiously flip to the page of my paper where I wrote about that, and stick it in the teacher’s face.)

Me: “I wrote it RIGHT! HERE!”

Civics Teacher: “Hmmmm.”

Me: “Didn’t you even read the entire paper?!”

Civics Teacher: *dismissively* “Give me a break. I have 150 kids to teach. You expect me to read every last word of every paper every kid writes?”

(I never took another course taught by that teacher!)