All I Learned in High School

I attended Montgomery Central High, a public school in Cunningham, TN. Altogether, there were about 75 faculty members and around 900 students. Because of the school's location, being in the country, it was branded as the "redneck school." People would poke fun at us for having a goat farm and having our classrooms built on a pond. We students never really identified with the redneck stereotype. We had people from all walks of life.

That being said, there was no distinction of cliques at Central. You could be friends with anyone you wanted. However, even without cliques, Central had a huge bullying issue. I witnessed bullying, I was bullied, and my friends were bullied. The administration chose to be blind to these situations. They would only address them when it was absolutely necessary.

Guidance counselors and teachers were the people I mostly had problems with. Some of them were in the wrong profession. They simply couldn't do their jobs. Either they never knew what they were talking about, or they couldn't relate the information to us effectively. Some were more focused on being popular and well-liked than actually doing their job. Others, to put it plainly, just didn't like teenagers.

Although I had issues many of the teachers or counselors, there were a select few that I had the pleasure to meet, the pleasure to learn from, and the pleasure to form strong bonds with. These wonderful people are the ones who taught me the most important thing I learned throughout my four years: no matter what, I should always be myself. Then life would be easier, and I would be happier.

I learned this indirectly, only through their actions. My theater teacher, Mr. Klein, was an overweight man. Every day someone would make fun of him for being so, calling him foul names. In turn, he would make fat jokes about himself to take away the power they felt they had over him. My sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Jackson, was taunted for being pregnant. People would ask her perverse questions during class about her personal life all the time. She would deliberately ignore their comments and continue with her lessons, or she would write them up. My junior English teacher, Mrs. Lindsey, was badmouthed for being a strict teacher. She was called every unpleasant name in the book, but she embraced her reputation, caring only that her students recognized that she couldn't be fooled with. My Algebra 2 teacher, Mr. Heberer, was somewhat of a pushover. He was very lenient, and some interpreted that as him not caring. So they would blatantly ignore him when he was teaching. Eventually when the principals had to evaluate him, they