Member-only story
Nobody Failed Maths That Year
RWDrabble 2.0.138 : austere
We named her Mrs Grumble, not overtly, understand. Life’s too short for that.
She came into my life in high school, the most austere teacher I’d ever known.
Had she come any sooner, I have no idea what I would have done.
When I found out, I explained to my mum that I couldn’t be in her class, that I was scared of her.
Mum sat me down and explained that the only way to deal with Mrs Grumble was to be attentive, complete my work with pride, including homework, and to smile at her every morning.
“There may be things going on in her life that we know nothing about.”
I repeated those words to my friends.
Gradually, the word got out that maybe Mrs Grumble was sad, not bad, and that if we all changed our attitudes …
We listened, we asked questions about theorems. Could we do some hands-on learning on the floor to understand theorems better?
And as she watched and listened to us all, helping, explaining, being patient, supporting, Mrs Grumble knew she’d found a better way to teach.
Every one of us passed maths.
