Spoil Thy Teacher

 

Article written for Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Schoolguides website, September 3, 2008

Back in middle school, during shop class, I stumbled upon a realization.

Now, I’ve never had a natural aptitude in shop class (more of a math and science geek myself), so the best that I could do was a B+ in these classes. No matter how much I tried to measure twice and cut once, and sand down that piece of pine dowel with a 100 grit sandpaper, I could never get it good enough to get past a B+. Our teacher, Mr. Hawk (no kidding, that’s his real name) allowed us to do extra credit projects, like making an extra rabbit piggy bank or a picture frame, to help boost our grades. Of course, I did as many extra credit assignments as possible, hoping to reach that A.

But near the end of the semester, I was still teetering on a B+. As class ended and the other kids were leaving, and I was sure that I’d wind up with a B+, Mr. Hawk called me over to his desk. He told me how he’d noticed that I was always in time for class, always had my shop tools organized and ready, cleaned up after myself, and made time to help out a couple classmates in using the shop tools, like a Jorgensen wood clamp. A Jorgensen clamp requires the user to use two hands to crank at the same time, and if you don’t crank them evenly, they won’t clamp straight.

Mr. Hawk pointed to his grade book, to my name, and next to it, the assortment of A’s, B’s, and C’s that I got during the semester. To the right of those grades was the number 88, the average of all my grades, which is a B+. He then took his pencil, turned it around, and erased the 88 and made it a 90. An A-minus. He told me, “You see what I did there? This is because you did everything you were asked, and you’re polite to me. I saw you over there helping those boys, and you made my job easier. For that, I think you deserve this grade.”

I haven’t forgotten what Mr. Hawk said, and to this day I do my best to apply it to my work. If I can rewrite a sentence so it’s easier to read, I’ll take an extra minute to do it. If I have to stay on the computer an extra ten minutes to doublecheck my work, I’ll do it. If I have to restaple a stack of papers so they’re easier to flip through, I think it’s worth the trouble. Because I never know when I’ll need that extra boost for my work, just as I needed for school.