A Political Allegory

When I was a child I had a rather aristocratic and arrogant English teacher who was new to the school and began getting criticized by parents for grading their children's papers low. The teacher one day asked the class if anyone agreed with this assessment and over half the class raised their hands. The teacher picked one student at random, had him stand and began questioning him about the methods of grading and how grades compared from one class to the other. The ambushed student, of course, had no real information, only his subjective feeling, and, ironically, his parents had never complained so the specifics were not really his.

The grilling was not really a cross examination as much as an opportunity for the teacher to offer a verbal white paper in his defense but it was long and harsh and, using the child as a straw man, personal. The class--really young adolescents--took it badly. The inherent dichotomy of adult-child, teacher-student, prepared-unprepared was evident to the dimmest in the room. It was one of those defining moments where young people perceive injustice and pettiness in an individual who had a priori respect.

To my knowledge the event generated no consequences aside from bitterness but those who see themselves as others' betters have an obligation to meet their assumptions.