As the dull scent of chalk dust mixes imperceptibly with the drone of the teacher's monotone voice, I doodle in my tablet and try to stay awake. I notice vaguely that despite my best efforts in the shower this morning after practice, I still smell like chlorine. I sigh and wonder why the school's administration requires the students to take a class that, if it were on the Internet, would delight Mirsky (creator of Mirsky's Worst of the Web), as yet another addition to his list of worthless sites. Still, there was hope that I would learn something that would make today's first class more than just forty-five wasted minutes.It wouldn't be the first time I learned something new from the least likely place. .
.
I have three reasons to continue hoping. They are: my freshman physical science class, the manner in which I came to take calculus in junior year and my experiences with high school swimming. These incidents have, despite the odds against it, added to my confidence in my academic ability and have shown me that there is something to be learned from even the least likely situations. .
.
The first, my freshman science class, taught me how to handle disorganized lessons. Often the teacher came in with minimal preparation and gave us lectures on whatever he felt like talking about whether or not that topic had anything more than a remote connection with the course. There was no way to know if the assignments given were ever going to be collected, or, if they were, if they would be graded. Still, in the second semester we covered the fundamentals of chemical equations, which was generally not a topic that was covered before junior year. I learned from the teacher, despite the drawbacks of a highly subjective grading system and of a class that almost no one took seriously. I also learned that there was something to be gained from any class and how to manage disorganized classes. .
Our school went through several changes in administration just before my junior year, and one of the benefits that brought came in the form of our new vice-principal, a religious sister with a no-nonsense attitude.
