He Was a Long Term Substitute

 When I was in junior high (the year indicates I was in my ninth grade year) I had an English instructor who seemed kind of strict and thought he might be a hard grader.  I really don’t know much about him except for he had pronounced my last name correctly and since that rarely happened I thought we must related.

I don’t know for how long he was my instructor.  I think at least one semester.  But we had a substitute finish out the year.  He was a very easy grade.  For the most part we didn’t even receive instruction (as I recall) but were subject to every Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton movie.  I kid you not.  I’m surprised to learn that apparently we had been given an assignment.  But there it is – his comments following the four A pluses.

 

 I must have referred to this paper at least four times within the letters I had sent to my mom while attending Ricks College.  I knew that if I ever came across it that it would not be worth the read – and yet how great to have those marks.  I think I needed an instructor somewhere in between the old man who had a heart attack and never did return to school (at least while I was there) and the long-term substitute who seemed to be obsessed with silent movies and oblivious to teaching English. I wonder how many of the other faculty were aware of the situation.  We definitely WEREN'T learning.

 I did not scan the assignment itself but had made my own comments that anyone who wanted to read my assignment plus any follow-ups had to be nuts.

“This thing was brought to you by a Dramatic English class.”