While visiting my parents a few weeks ago, I learned something about the teacher I had back in first and second grades. (Back in the late 1970's, that is. Remember that bad teacher rant I had shortly after I joined I2 a year and a half ago?)
My parents both taught at that school at the same time I was attending. (Mother taught kindergarten and Dad taught science.) The principal had been their band director when they were in high school some years before that. (That's where my parents met, in their high school band.) So, my parents had the inside track on the school's faculty politics.
Anyway, somehow the topic of that old hellhole came up during my recent visit. Turns out that teacher I had back then, who I hate even to this day, was some loser that none of the public schools would hire. So, the principal of this private school decided to be nice and hire him. Apparently he was putting this loser's best interests over those of his students. For those of you who don't remember my bad-teacher rant, this is the asshole who gave me a math phobia. Initially I liked math. I even had my own scientific calculator at age seven. I was aware of negative numbers before I was supposed to "learn" about them, and that annoyed this teacher. So, the first time I had a bad day with the math, that was Mr. Loser's opportunity to make sure it was a REALLY bad day, and make me hate math. The asshole enjoyed humiliating students in front of each other.
Fast-forward to a dozen years later, to when I'm college. I'm majoring in engineering. I'm taking a Calculus II mid-term and having a horrible time with it, and then I have a flashback. A stunned, silent flashback, mind you, but still it comes to show you the negative effect. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I hadn't been stuck there with that asshole at such a young and vulnerable age. Maybe I'd be a successful engineer now instead of a government drone.
As for the old private school. It's been reduced greatly in size. Its campus has been sold off. One of the old buildings, originally a hospital, is now offices and restaurants. The building where Dipshit held class is now a Montessouri school. Every sign of hell-on-earth is gone. Last I heard, the principal teaches a dozen students at his house, and calls that his school, but still... good riddance.
Mind you, I don't waste my time thinking about this shit. It's just that finding out that bit of info, serves as explanation, but I had to have a moment of renewed anger at how the situation could have so easily been avoided.
