This Teacher Passes The Compassion Test With Flying Colors

Like a lot of high school students, I suffered from test anxiety. A lot of teachers don’t understand how bad it can be for some kids, but my history teacher does.

We’ve just taken the first big test of the year in my American History class, on the American Revolutionary War. I know I bombed the test because of my anxiety, so I’m feeling pretty down the rest of the day and all that night. The next day, my history teacher shows a movie so he can work on getting our tests graded because he wasn’t able to finish them all overnight.

Throughout the class period, I watch my teacher quietly talk to several kids at their desks. I assume he’s giving them their test scores, so my anxiety and panic are growing each time my teacher gets out of his chair. Finally, it’s my turn. My teacher gets up and walks over to my desk.

Teacher: *Quietly* “Hey, [My Name]?”

Me: “Yeah?”

Teacher: “You have a Study Hall next period, right?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Teacher: “If I write you a note for your Study Hall teacher, would you be able to come over here to talk about your test?”

Me: “Okay.”

Teacher: “Thanks. Here’s the note. See you later.”

With that, he heads back to his own desk. I start panicking because I think he’s going to chew me out for doing so badly on the test, and the rest of the movie is just a blur. The period finally ends, and I head to Study Hall, show my Study Hall teacher the note, and head back to my history teacher’s room.

Teacher: “Hey, welcome back, [My Name].”

I’m almost in tears because I’m panicking so much.

Me: “Hi.”

Teacher: “I see that you’re uncomfortable, and I’m sorry I couldn’t explain more during class. Do you have test anxiety?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Teacher: “I thought so. You always seem to know your stuff during discussions, so when I saw your test score, I wanted to reach out and give you a better chance. What can you tell me about the Battle of Saratoga?”

Me: “Um… what?”

Teacher: “I just want you to think of this as a regular discussion, okay? Don’t worry about being wrong or making guesses; just tell me what you think.”

We proceed to have a conversation about some of the important events and details of the Revolutionary War. After talking back and forth for about twenty minutes, with me getting more and more comfortable the entire time, my teacher finally brings things to a close.

Teacher: “Well, it’s obvious that you really do know your stuff, so I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. On the paper test yesterday, you only got a score of thirteen percent. I’m guessing that’s because of your test anxiety, so, based on talking today, I’m going to throw that out and give you an eighty percent score. You’re missing some of the important details, so I can’t give you a perfect score, but you got all the big-picture stuff spot on. Are you okay with that?”

Me: “Absolutely! Thank you so much!”

Teacher: “You’re welcome. I still want you to do your best on the paper tests, but if you have a hard time with them, talk to me and we can do things this way again. Deal?”

I found out that my teacher did something like this for all the kids who had test anxiety – that’s why he was talking to everybody during the movie after the test. Not only did we all get better grades overall, but we even got better at taking paper tests because it took away a lot of the pressure of worrying about our grades.

By the end of the year, our history teacher was everybody’s favorite teacher. He also tried to help other teachers find similar ways to work with students, but not every teacher was willing to go along. I wish they had because that would have made high school a lot better for me and a lot of other kids. As it was, he was kind of the shining beacon in a world of darkness.

I know he’ll probably never read this, but I know that he knows how much my classmates and I appreciated his efforts, so thanks again, [Teacher].