I have mentioned that I really liked science and I did a lot of
science reading on my own I didn't read the Scientific American but I
did give it a real thorough perusal and picture look every month when
my uncle sent it to me. I had that great seventh grade science
teacher and I had also read several science books and a whole set of
World Book Encyclopedias so I always wanted science to be my favorite
class and it never was. My teachers were either incompetent, unstable
or both and I don't think anything I hadn't already learned on my own
was covered in a science class until I was in college. In 9th
grade they had a three hour science class which was the holy grail of
science nerd ambition but unfortunately the teacher was a moron and I
had called him on it too many times. He would say something in an
authoritative voice and the other kids would write it down or
otherwise validate his authority and I would raise my hand to clarify
the position. I would whip out the nerd's sharpest blade, the
'actually'. At the first of the year he would call on me pretty
regularly and I would start in, 'Actually, Devils tower is a volcanic
formation not an erosive one like plateaus in Southern Utah.' I knew
this because it said it in the book that we were supposed to read for
the class. In fact it was in the caption of the picture we were
looking at on the page he told us to turn to. Even though I pointed
out my source and read it after he argued with me he wouldn't admit
he was wrong and claimed the book was mistaken. I offered, in a sassy
tone, to correct the book for him. He told me we were moving on and
that was that. I jumped in several more times in the first couple of
weeks in class and he started just telling me he was not interested
in my opinion. It was not my opinion it was my well documented fact
that I wanted to 'actually' into the discussion. The final straw was
when I brought in a box of fossils that my family had found scuba
diving and I was showing a knee cap from a mammoth which I described
as a patella. My teacher jumped in to add some information and called
the bone a PUTT-UH-LA. I had to call him on that so I asked him what
he had called it, he repeated and I gave a smart-ass correction and
I was invited to take my presentation and leave the class room. I
didn't talk to much in class after that but I also didn't bother
signing up for three hour science because I figured there was little
chance he would select me and be 'actually'd' for three hours a day.
