(I’m in the third grade. I’m the quiet, bookish sort and I always have a book on me. While my classmates are still on picture books, I have long since picked up short chapter books. I have a brand new one to read for our silent reading time. Because it is new, I don’t want to keep it in my messy desk where it might get damaged. I keep it in my book bag for the morning and get it out on my way in from recess. We aren’t allowed to go to our bags at any other time during the school day. When silent reading is over I put the book at the corner of my desk, out of the way, and get my workbook out like I am supposed to.)

Teacher: “[Name], please put your book in your desk.”

Me: “I don’t want it to get damaged and my desk is messy. Can I go put it back in my bag?”

Teacher: “No. Put it in your desk. This isn’t reading time.”

Me: “I know it’s not. I just don’t want to damage my new book.”

Teacher: “Put it in your desk right now or I’m taking it!”

(I move a bunch of things to make a semi-safe spot for the book.)

Teacher: “[Name]! This is not desk cleaning time, either!”

Me: “I know. I’m just making room for the book.”

Teacher: “If you don’t stop mouthing off and disobeying I’m calling your mother!”

(Trying not to cry, I got back to work. When I go home that afternoon, I discovered that my teacher had called my mom and told her that I had been reading when I wasn’t supposed to and had repeatedly refused to stop and put my book away. Because my mom never believed a word I said over an adult’s, my new book was taken and I was forced to read from the class library (all picture books) for the remainder of the school year.)

(I’m sitting in a large classroom waiting for a third-year lecture on evolution to begin. Behind me I hear two students chatting.)

Man: “So I finally broke down and bought the textbook.”

Woman: “Oh?”

Man: “Yeah, but I made the mistake of leaving it lying around my parents’ place. My mom got all defensive seeing it, talking about how evolution wasn’t real. Then she asked me why I was taking the course.”

Woman: “What did you tell her?”

Man: *sarcastically* “‘It’s just for interest! It’s not like its one of the uniting principles of my majoring subject or anything.’ I think she bought it.”

(We just finished our group presentation and the professor asks the class to give feedback. We get good feedback from the people evaluating us. A random girl in the class decides to interject her opinion.)

Girl: “I feel like the last few groups kept using words they didn’t even write themselves. Like ‘organic compounds,’ like really? Who says words like that in real life?”

Me: That’s what they are CALLED… This is a science class. We are going to use scientific terms.”

(The rest of the class jumped down her throat and laughed at her because she basically called every other group out for using ‘big words’ she didn’t understand to try to make them look bad in front of the professor.)

(I’m in my history class. The boy that I’ve been told to sit next to for the last six weeks likes to copy my work. I’ve asked him to stop but have found he’s copied me word for word for the last three weeks whenever we have to take notes from the textbook.)

Teacher: “Right, guys. Turn to the chapter on medieval medicine. I want you to write a paragraph summary.”

Me: *writing* “The practices of the medieval doctors were not all bad; there were some valuable contributions. Practices improved when the doctors realised that they needed to…”

(I look down and see the boy sitting next to me has written the same word for word. I stop writing in pen and get out my pencil.)

Me: *continuing writing* “…needed to stop copying my work.”

(Needless to say, once he realised what he’d just copied down, he stopped trying to copy my work!)

(I am outside a university hall of residence, on the night of a lunar eclipse.)

Student: “So what planet is the moon eclipsed behind?”

This story is part of the Eclipse roundup!

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