“Here’s my core memory of learning about Rasputin in school:
I learned about Rasputin the day Columbine was happening at a school about an hour away. It was on the TV when I got to history class, then the teacher turned it off and was like, “Chapter 35, Rasputin…” and started talking about this fairy tale about a guy who couldn’t die.
I thought this was SO WEIRD because I was like, “Isn’t this like turning off the Moon landing to talk about Hansel and Gretel? I mean, in a bad way, but still, isn’t this history happening right now, and instead of watching it unfold we’re talking about this nonsense?”
Maybe there’s something ironic about learning about an immortal dude during that tragedy, I dunno, I don’t go that far with it. I just think it’s a bizarre example of bad teaching.
But this teacher, on the first day, also showed us an ultrasound of his baby, who was going to be born severely disabled, so he and his wife had this baby who died in like two days. He told a room of 8th graders this story on the FIRST DAY of his class, and it didn’t connect to anything ever, and he was kind of an asshole after that, if I’m totally honest.
I’m not sure whether he was just telling us that because he felt like he had to, or if it excused him being an asshole, or what.
But then on the other hand, I had a drama teacher that same year who told us she got pregnant, not by sex, but because her boyfriend was jerking off next to her in the bed and blasted her with his seed. It’s a story I didn’t totally believe, but the most mystifying part was WHY she would tell us this story in the first place. As though 8th graders would think it was weird that their teacher was pregnant.
Does this shit still happen in school?”