The Psychic

I had a math teacher who seemed to like it when students were wrong. He also had an incredible knack for knowing when a student was wrong. As I have said before, I did really well in math. While others were frequently called on to give their answers to problems, I could somehow manage to go a full week without having to share any of my answers. I would also get all problems correct during that period of time. When this teacher would finally call on me, he would call on me twice. Those two times would be for the two wrong answers on my homework.

It didn’t seem like it was just me. I heard stories from other students who had this same teacher. They always seem to get called on only when they were wrong. While I don’t believe in psychics, this math teacher made a strong case for their existence.

If he really had psychic abilities, I find it disturbing that he would use them to humiliate his students. Of course, I don’t believe that. Even without psychic abilities, the smirk he showed every single time that a student was wrong got to me. He enjoyed his students’ failures. We frequently insist that teachers are important for our future. What does it say when a teacher shows us that he wants us to fail?