Article January 1, 1999 Issue

Not at the teacher's mercy

Dagmar Schlüter

A watershed experience in school showed me that, through the power of prayer, disagreements can be overcome. A solution can be found — for everyone concerned. And that I'm not hopelessly at a teacher's mercy.

For the two last years of secondary school, I decided to take French as one of my two main subjects. Soon, though, it was obvious that the class did not get along well with the teacher. We felt she was not giving fair marks. And she made the girls in the class cry with her harsh words. I was not maintaining the required grade point average and was afraid of having to repeat the school year. If I'd known how difficult this teacher was, I would have chosen another main subject.

I, like the other girls, started to criticize the teacher openly. And when after a test I asked the teacher why I had again received a bad mark, she told me that I was not at the level of achievement where I thought I was. I left the classroom crying. Going to that class became harder than ever.

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