This Cracked article brings back memories.
I went to high school in Florida for 2 years. (Grew up in the Canadian school system, which has French as a mandatory class until high school, and then you can continue into high school level if you want – I went all the way). This shit about American schools is real. I got – no joke – 104% on my Grade 12 French finals. They were serious. Another time in French class (grade 11) in Florida – my first day, in fact, the teacher absolutely seriously wanted us to colour in pictures of a clown so students would learn the names of colours. I asked, “Are you sure you really want me to do this?” Yep, she was. Grade 12 class was once working on the different types of past tense. I completedthe exercises, handed them in, and the teacher gave them back to me and said, “OK, this isn’t really a learning experience for you.” The rest of the year, I spent the class tutoring the other kids or plugged my headphones into my CD player to soothe myself with the French concept album of “Les Miserables”.
I had not brought my colouring markers to Grade 11 French class that day. I never anticipated such a pedestrian assignment.
The Canadian schools I went to were also great at mainstreaming me in terms of sports activities. I couldn’t safely play volleyball, but I was put to work out in the weight rooms on days the class was doing shit I clearly couldn’t. Otherwise, I did what they did when I could: ran laps, played floor hockey (Yes, I can! Ask me how…). My grade 7 teacher, Mr Taylor, made sure I worked out with the rest of the class training for the Manitoba Marathon. Good times. (I just went in the Super Run, and Mr Taylor himself stayed with me and had a wheelchair with him in case I needed a break. How cool is that?)
In Mr Taylor’s computer class was also where I had a fun time compiling a database of dinosaurs and their characteristics. I think that was when DOS was just coming in? Wooooo…
Back to the article:
Why doesn’t the potato-allergy kid have an epi-pen?
I eventually asked the French teacher in Grade 11 to let me skip her boring class in favour of sneaking into the Musical Theatre class that was in the same time slot and getting a bit part as a Russian, in “Fiddler on the Roof, Jr”. I also skipped Grade 11 English class (with teacher’s permission) one day to hear a live piano concert by some famous dude in the gym.
