To Kelly Cooper, Gone but not forgotten.

As long as I can remember, I've had english teachers that have left some mark on me, good or bad. When its a good thing, I remember them fondly and try to live up to their teachings. When its a bad thing, I just remember as the example of what teaching is not supposed to be. People have heard me say "fuck, I feel like I have just been at Ms.Sandra's class" when I come out of Pikarya's class. And that's because they both have some fixation with English Literature. They have it with a reason, thats the subject that they both teach ¬¬. I also say sometimes "Man, I miss Kelly" and that is because all I ever learned from grammar is because of him. He was EXTREMELY pacient regarding grammar. He knew I was lazy and still tried to keep me interested. I'm still lazy and still have a hard time with grammar, but the few things I got right on Pikarya's English 4 test were because of him.

I've got this teacher, whom we are not gonna fully name. Let's just call him Jara. This young man reminds me of Kelly so much. See, Kelly used to give us these assignments about public speaking and stuff. We had to organize a debate and investigate on both sides. The typical issues that came up were abortion, gun control, drug legalization and junk of the kind. These were controversial issues and you could easily find stuff online. It was 1999 back then...internet was not what it is today. Sure, you could find things easily, but you had to rewrite them and make them look like you did them. Back then, any numbscull could download things and pass it as theirs. Today, you can still do it but is not that easy to get away with it. Teacher are more aware of what's online and all the information you can get. I'm digressing now, the point is that Kelly was from the first teachers that became aware of how internet works. I specially remember once when he caught this gal with a complete copy/paste from a website. For him, it was evident because of the syntax and the vocabulary. Still, this gal thought Kelly was stupid enough not to realize she had downloaded it.

Kelly was my junior high english teacher. I'm in college now and have other subjects. Still, I have maaany papers to do and little time to do them. Jara is just a kid when it come to teaching and also, this Kid is a junior high teacher. What annoys me, is that this guy is like Kelly but in a college class. And still, Kelly wouldn't be so annoying when it comes down to grading papers. Sure, Kelly got suspicious of well written things. But not ALL things. See, this kid googles anything that seems well written and doesnt trust anyone. In his mind, students aren't able of writing good stuff. They always download things. I won't deny the fact that there are still cases in which people steal things from the internet, though its not everyone. To make things shorter, this kid thinks that we all are his junior high students and that our papers are not worth it. He think he's dealing with a bunch of 14 year olds who are not trustworthy.

Comparing this kid Jara with Kelly, I've come to realize that I feel as if I never left junior high at all. I still have to do stupid expositions in class. I still have to do a paper and be worried about things seeming as if I had stolen them from internet. I still feel bored in class. I still don't pay attention. All these defects didn't exist on Kelly's class. He was a better teacher, even if he was teaching junior high english. He trusted us most of the times. His project weren't dull and boring. His class was interesting, even if grammar sucks. In a nutshell, Kelly respected us.

All this to say that there are some people who are meant to stay teaching silly junior high kids and there are others who are meant for better things.

I hope you are writting screenplays.
I hope you still listen Nikita's Soundtrack.
I hope you still read Calvin and Hobbes.
I hope you still like hockey.
I hope you still take the school bus.