Good Teachers Part 2

Mr. Nethercut taught us Grade 10 Social Studies and Art. He certainly caught our attention. In a small town where new teachers are always a novelty, Mr. N was even more so. On the first day of grade 10, he walked into the room, slammed the door and proceeded to YELL at us "THIS COULD BE THE WORST YEAR OF YOUR LIFE." We were listening. He continued, "Or we could have a great year. The choice is up to you." He handed out blank pieces of paper and had us write down one word: RESPECT. He told us it was his one rule and that if we showed him respect, he would show us respect.

Background info: we were a very difficult class. Substitute teachers didn't want to sub in our classroom. The driver's ed. instructor threatened to walk out on us and fail the whole class. Teachers had meetings about us when we were in grade 8. So ya, no teachers had ever talked about respecting US before.

Mr. Nethercut had no problem controlling us. He didn't need to. We respected him because he respected us. He had high expectations of us and we actually wanted to live up to them.