I have just realized that I never did my rant about the subject of Algebra. Because I didn't do class breakdowns for the year I was in ninth grade, I managed to avoid the sore spot in the subject. I now get an opportunity to let my feelings be known about the subject.
I first encountered Algebra when I was in the seventh grade. There were some problems that required us to determine what number should occupy the space represented by a letter of the alphabet. I was able to look at the problem and figure out right away what it was. When I handed the homework in to the teacher, he said that I had done it wrong and that I needed to show my work. "What do you mean, 'show my work?" I've got the answers right here!" He just re-iterated that I had to show my work.
When I got to Algebra I in the ninth grade, it was more of the same. It was very frustrating to have to write everything down, even though I had already come up with the answer beforehand. It's not like I was cheating and I had certainly proven myself capable of doing a lot of math in my head. I didn't like taking all that time to scribble a bunch of stuff down that I had no use for. "Move things from this side to the other, that's how you do Algebra." Nonsense.
I have since talked to a lot of other people, including Loyd, who said they had the same experience. It's true that public education can stifle brilliant minds by forcing them into mediocrity. I lost all interest in math after graduating from high school because I was able to receive automatic credit for my math requirements in college.
Okay, so I've gotten that out of my system. I now get to tell all about my Algebra II teacher. He was considered the most difficult and challenging teacher at the school. He had no qualms about failing you if you didn't do the work in his class.
He lived in Lovington, which was about 70 miles away from Artesia. He commuted to school every day on a motorcycle. In Lovington, he owned and operated a liquor store with his wife.
In addition to his reputation as a difficult teacher, he announced at the beginning of the year that we would make our way through the entire Algebra II text book. I was actually looking forward to this because as I have mentioned before, I never had a single class in high school or college in which we completed the book. He must have been aware of every other teacher in the district not completing their textbooks before school let out for the summer.
As it turned out, we wouldn't get to accomplish that feat. One day in the spring semester, the teacher didn't show up for class. We found out that the night before, somebody in the drive up window at the liquor store started talking at his wife in a threatening manner, so the teacher pulled out a gun, shot and killed that guy.
We were stunned. He was a rather mild-mannered person, so we had trouble picturing him gaining enough rage to want to kill someone. We wondered if he ever wanted to do that to any of his students.
From what I can recall, I don't think he was ever charged with the assault. I guess investigators determined it was justified (or that the victim was some jerk who deserved it).
We never saw him again. We know that he paid one more visit to the school to get his things because a little teacher statue he had on the shelf was missing a couple of weeks after the incident. When the yearbook came out the next semester, there were no photos of him included, even though he taught for more than half the school year.
He was replaced by the wife of another teacher who had just been hired that year at the high school. She had originally planned to just be available as an occasional substitute because she was pregnant, but got roped into working full time after it was apparent that he was not coming back. It's the only time I've ever had a teacher who was pregnant and gave birth during the school year.
The bad thing was that the original Algebra teacher was probably the best teacher I ever had, and I would have been able to put up with the knowledge that he killed someone. It would have been worth it to continue learning from him. (However, I am aware that most of the other students would never have felt comfortable being in his classroom.)
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