Coach Hoek was the cross country coach when I was in high school.  At least for three years.  He also taught English class.  My Senior year he went from a teacher I looked up to to someone I really wish I never took a class from.

In my Senior year he taught a Senior writing and speaking class.  One of the assignments was to give a presentation in front of the class with the goal of teaching something to everyone.  One of the more popular choices was “how to make brownies.”  I don’t think anyone prepared for this, someone did ‘How to play guitar” but he started his lesson by saying “I’m not going to teach you how to play guitar, go get lessons if you want to learn.  I’m just going to play for ten minutes,” and he did.  And he got an A.  One person was going to teach us how to change a car stereo but didn’t bring a stereo in, or wires or do any drawings.  Just talked us through it.  He got a B+.  Colin, I’ll admit, did a pretty good job with a presentation of “How to sneak out of school without getting caught.”

I didn’t prepare much for my presentation.  But I had decided to do a lesson on drawing stick figures, and how to use it as a stress reliever. I drew a lot at that time, and at one point thought about becoming a political cartoonist.  But that was aside from the point, I drew my stick figures on the board, showed how you only need one unique feature for each stick figure to make it stand out.  I drew short comic strips, drew out some frustrations, and other such randomness.  I’m sure it wasn’t great, but then again, other than Colin’s, no one’s was great and mine was no worse or better than theirs.

I got a C.  Scoring was 50/50 on this project.  Students got to grade and rate each others; giving it a grade and then ranking what they thought were the best presentations.  The other 50% came from Mr. Hoek.  So when I got my grade back and saw that students had given me an ‘A’, and Mr. Hoek had given me a D-.  His
The guy who played guitar.  He finally did the presentation three weeks after it was due. And he got a better grade than I did.  I actually confronted Mr. Hoek after finding out what he gave that student.  Mr. Hoek’s words to me were along the lines of “An A means more to him than it does to you.  He needed that grade more than I did.  Never mind that he didn’t actually do any of the requirements of the presentation other than sit up in front of the class for ten minutes.explanation that went along with my grade was that he felt he didn’t learn anything from my presentation.  The guy who played guitar for ten minutes without explaining anything, that guy deserved a better grade than I did.  The people who read instructions off of a Brownies Mix box.  Deserved a better grade than I did.  The guy who put his feet on the table and tried to explain how to put a car stereo in without pictures or examples.  Yeah…. he deserved a better grade than I did.  Apparently he learned things from all of them.

It stands out in my mind as just awful teaching.  Yes I could have and probably should have done more for my presentation, but as a teacher you can’t just arbitrarily hand out grades.  And that’s what Mr. Hoek did.  He felt others deserved or needed or earned better grades doing the same or less than I did.

I don’t know why I thought about this today, but I did.  It irks me still, and I’m 16 years removed from High School.  I think I did well in the class regardless of that presentation, but man it still irks me.

Well, I’ll never see Mr. Hoek again so that’s that. I think he still teaches at QHS.  And I’m sure in the last 16 years I have built this story up more than it should be.  All those grades probably weren’t ‘A’s’, but they sure as hell were better than what he gave me.