Hometown Memories: The Teacher Who Went On Strike

I went to a pretty tough high school where there were many bad apples, and these bad apples were just as unruly in the class as they were out of it. They disrupted lessons. Made trouble. Created chaos. And made many a teacher�s life miserable.

At my high school graduation ceremony.

Despite that, most teachers managed to get the job done. Save for a few who completely lost control of their classrooms. Completely. I had such a teacher in tenth grade French. His class had spun out of control, and had turned into a party room.

After a few weeks of total chaos, this teacher shut his instruction manual and declared �I�m not teaching again until you are interested in learning.� Every day after that, he�d read a book at his desk until class was over; then he�d grab his stuff and leave.

At first it was funny, and the partying continued. But as the weeks went by, everyone started getting nervous. And quieter. Why? Because the class he was teaching was compulsory. In order to obtain our high school diploma in the future, we needed to pass it. No matter how long it took. OOPS...

Well, needless to say that eventually he was asked to �Please start teaching again. We�ll be quiet.� And he did.

It turned out to be the most disciplined and academically-inclined class I�d ever been in, taught by one of the most respected teachers from that day forward.

Have you ever had a teacher go on strike? Or something similar?