LongtimeLurker
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2014
Aw shit, that just dredged up a memory.
I think it was tenth grade English. Was the teacher's first semester teaching and she hadn't quite gotten a grasp on how to best wrangle a bunch of fifteen year olds.
Came in to class one day and she wanted us to have a debate. Subject, euthanasia. Started out decently enough but ultimately devolved into a bunch of name calling and making jokes about the subject, generally just being a bunch of shitty fifteen year olds while the one adult was kind of powerless to reel us in.
Debate kinda ran its course with like fifteen minutes left in the class and once we kinda tapered off she finally explained.
"You may be wondering why I chose this topic. You see, I took my mom off life support yesterday and..."
And she burst into tears and just left. Dismissed us on her way out the door. We just kinda sat in silence for a few minutes looking at each other like "what have we done" before awkwardly leaving.
Class ran with her the next day like nothing had happened.
Writing this, and to some extent even back then, I question the wisdom of her letting a bunch of teens run wild with a subject that was still a very open wound for her, but I wonder if it wasn't her misguided way of trying to seek closure or absolve her guilt or something. All I know is those tears came out and we instantly regretted all those "man this euthanasia stuff is really putting me down" jokes..
I think it was tenth grade English. Was the teacher's first semester teaching and she hadn't quite gotten a grasp on how to best wrangle a bunch of fifteen year olds.
Came in to class one day and she wanted us to have a debate. Subject, euthanasia. Started out decently enough but ultimately devolved into a bunch of name calling and making jokes about the subject, generally just being a bunch of shitty fifteen year olds while the one adult was kind of powerless to reel us in.
Debate kinda ran its course with like fifteen minutes left in the class and once we kinda tapered off she finally explained.
"You may be wondering why I chose this topic. You see, I took my mom off life support yesterday and..."
And she burst into tears and just left. Dismissed us on her way out the door. We just kinda sat in silence for a few minutes looking at each other like "what have we done" before awkwardly leaving.
Class ran with her the next day like nothing had happened.
Writing this, and to some extent even back then, I question the wisdom of her letting a bunch of teens run wild with a subject that was still a very open wound for her, but I wonder if it wasn't her misguided way of trying to seek closure or absolve her guilt or something. All I know is those tears came out and we instantly regretted all those "man this euthanasia stuff is really putting me down" jokes..