When Mrs.Noss assigned me to do one of the geometry problems, I wasn’t too concerned. I was good at geometry and the problem looked pretty simple. I was good at geometry and the problem was simple. I wasn’t concerned but I soon found out that I should have been.

When Mrs. Noss got to my problem, she stared at it for a moment. Then she turned to me and said, “Do you want to go to the office?”.

Go to the office? Not really.

“Young man, suppose you come up here and do this problem correctly. The rest of us will sit and watch you do it”, she told me.

I thought I had done it correctly. I was positive the answer was correct. I went up there and stared at the blackboard and damned if I could see what was wrong. The more I looked at the answer the more positive I became. I also became aware of some snickering and giggling. I guessed that just standing there staring at the blackboard made me look like some sort of goofball. Maybe I should have taken the “go to the office” option.

“Mrs. Noss, I realize you’re the teacher but I think my answer is correct”, I finally told her.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t. I said to go up there and do the problem correctly. Please write down each step of the equation in the proper manner so we can all learn how it’s done”, she responded.

I wanted to say, “Mrs. Noss, if you don’t know how it’s done, why are you the teacher?”.

That’s what I wanted to say. The same as I wanted to say thank you to Frannie Balaga. The problem was, I didn’t have anything to thank Frannie for except some vivid dreams.

“Mrs. Noss, I don’t understand what you want me to do. I have the correct answer”, I did say. It was a lame answer and I was ashamed I couldn’t think of something clever to say.

“I repeat. I didn’t say the answer wasn’t correct. The way you arrived at the answer was incorrect. What you have there isn’t telling anyone anything”, she replied.

“It told them the right answer. That’s the whole purpose of this, isn’t it”, I thought and then surprised myself by saying.

“Young man, you are about this far from being sent to the office. Now, are you going to show us how you arrived at the correct answer or not?”, she said in a very unfriendly tone. Very unfriendly.

Go to the office for getting the answer correct? That didn’t make any sense to me at all. Then I surprised myself again by saying just that. Surprised Mrs. Noss too. In fact, it surprised the whole class. The snickering and giggling stopped.

Now she was really pissed. She got up from her desk, stormed over to where I was and grabbed the chalk out of my hand. That’s better than being slapped which is what I thought she was going to do. Mrs. Noss was a big woman. She must have gone 250 pounds.

“Take this chalk and show the class how you arrived at the answer. If not, you will go to the office and you will not pass this class”, she spit at me.

Huh? Show them how I got the correct answer? How was I going to do that. I saw the problem and saw the answer. I didn’t see the in between part. At least I didn’t notice it if I did.

“Mrs. Noss, I saw the problem, I saw the answer. I didn’t see the solution. I know you’re supposed to, uh, let’s see. Hmm, I think you first-”

“You think? You have the correct answer. I don’t want you to think”, she screamed at me. Then she realized what she had just said. A teacher just told a student not to think. Maybe she should go to the office instead of me. I controlled myself and didn’t say it out loud. Mrs. Noss was bigger than me, but older and I was positive I could take her. Reasonably positive. Still, I wasn’t going to say it out loud.

“Take your seat. No, don’t take your seat. Go away. Go to the library. Go walk the halls if you want. Go-. Go away. Stay away tomorrow too. You saw the answer. This is geometry, not art. You saw the answer. Go away. Go away.”