Return of Memoryfest - Day 25/31
Horror of horrors, I have not written any classroom-related memories except that one about the spelling word mispronunciation when we were eight years old. And school has been possibly the largest shaping force in my life other than my parents. For shame!
25. High School
( It's a strange thing, this combination of egotism and insecurity: to hide intelligence because of the fear of other students shunning you, yet wanting the teacher to know that you know what you know, while also desperately afraid you'll be exposed at any moment as knowing less than you seem to-simultaneously believing you're smarter than most of them and also ignorant in the larger scheme of things. )
25. High School
( It's a strange thing, this combination of egotism and insecurity: to hide intelligence because of the fear of other students shunning you, yet wanting the teacher to know that you know what you know, while also desperately afraid you'll be exposed at any moment as knowing less than you seem to-simultaneously believing you're smarter than most of them and also ignorant in the larger scheme of things. )
But here's an example:
In sixth grade in geography we were talking mass transit systems in capitals and our teacher, Sven, had asked the class for examples by using the Danish capital, Copenhagen. I had recently moved to that area of the country and was one of very few who'd actually been to Copenhagen, having lived in farily close proximity to it.
So, someone listed busses, the S-trains and then R. said "underground" and Sven said "we already have that - the S-trains" (this was many years before we built our metro) and I sort of blurted "the S-trains don't run underground". (Speaking out of turn is not such a horrible offence in Danish school *S*) And Sven said "but they do, at Nørreport - don't you know that?" in this very derogatory fashion. And everyone laughed. I tried saying that it's such a short stretch (and it is - less than half a mile *S*) but the laughter was there. Sven never could stand someone else being right...
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