Maths Essays
My First Year at Secondary School was understandably a little daunting, but there was one teacher that stood out above the others. His name was Mr Gilmore and he taught me Maths. Maybe it was because it was his final year before retirement, maybe he had a moment of clarity some years previous and came up with a ploy that would make things a little more interesting for himself, but whatever inspired him Mr Gilmore had a penchant for Essays. If you mis-behaved for whatever reason, you had to write an essay on whatever it was you were doing.

Thusly, in one of our first lessons another lad in the class took my rubber and wouldn't give it back. Mr Gilmore eased forward in his chair, pushed his head forward so he could eye up the situation above his glasses and shouted to the culprit. "Did you steal his rubber? Only gypsies steal - write me an essay on gypsies for tomorrow morning. No buts."

Cue a flabbergasted look of horror from said lad, and a wide, lingering grin from myself. Other essays requested over the following year were 'rectal gas', 'the mining of blackboard chalk' and 'hermaphrodites'. An absolute legend who actually made me look forward to Maths every day, an almost unthinkable task looking back.
(BeardyMat, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 22:24, Reply)