Dear Mrs. H,
You were my fourth grade teacher. You taught me a lot of lessons, but some lessons I should not have been taught at that time in my life. In your class I learned all fifty states, became a wax figure, made string art, and how to weave a mayflower pole. I also learned it's pronounced ARK-AN-SAW, not ARK-AN-SASS, so I guess that's a pretty valuable lesson.
While I was having my friends recount to me the entire Breaking Dawn novel, you did something you should not have while teaching a class of ten year-olds. You lost it. I remember vividly during a time you gave us to do classwork alone, you screamed at everybody to sit down. I do not think I have seen any group of children run as fast as my class did that day to get to our seats. As we continued to sit in silence for five, maybe ten minutes, you walked over to the front of the room and continued with this statement, slightly modified.
"If I had a class filled with Emily's, Alex's, Lilia's, Margaux's, Alanna's, Lexi's, and Katie's my life would be prefect. But instead, I am stuck here with the rest of you." She then proceeded to pick on the girls whose names had not been said by pointing out their flaws, one by one.
My name was clearly on that list, but what if it was not? I felt awful for days following the incident, like I had been put on a pedestal above all of these girls, and that was scary. I did not want to be put above anyone in a learning environment. Still I do not. It is a great feeling to stand out amongst your peers for your success, but it is not okay if it is at the cost of their success. I think you forgot for a moment, we are not your children, and we are a group of girls attending a private school that crushes you in the importance of success at a young age.
I hope you haven't acted like that again since 2011. It was memorable enough that I still remember it 6 years later, but I might forget it. What about the girls whose names were not called? I can only imagine they'd remember it long after I have forgotten.
Margaux
