School Story
I tried to listen to my students and really pay attention to what you were saying. Once in a while, I played a long shot. On occasion, I stepped outside the box and tried to drag you with me — but sometimes things just happened.
Early in the semester, a student strode up to my desk with his paper in his hand. “How could you have given me a C on this?” he asked.
I took the paper from him, looked it over and said, “I gave you a C because C is an average grade, and this is an average paper.”
“But this is the best thing I’ve ever written.”
“Is this really the very best thing you have ever written?” I asked.
"Yes!”
“You’re sure. You’re really sure?”
“Yes!”
“Ok. If this is the best paper you’ve ever written, I’ll give you an A."
“I don’t believe you,” he said.
I took the paper from him, crossed off the C and put an A on it. Then I took out my roll book, found his name, crossed off the C and put an A in its place. “There," I said, “now it’s an A.”
Something happened during that transaction, and I was never quite sure what, but after I changed his C to an A, nearly every paper he turned in was an A paper.
What a joy it was to be a teacher!
