“From the day that you’re born
to the day you ride in the hearse
things are never so bad
that they couldn’t get worse.”
Sam Duncan was an African American educator in Higginsville, Missouri from the 1950s-1970s where he taught a number of classes and coached several sports. The high school’s football field is named in his honor.
Despite his wise and cynical advice and his years of teaching service, my own personal experience with Mr. Duncan was far less impressive. We were in American History–the first class that was really a challenge for me–and Mr. Duncan was subbing in for Mr. Pace. One of the preps that usually caused problems was whistling–just barely audibly, and just enough to be annoying. My friend Wilxn was sitting in front of him, and Mr. Duncan accused Wilxn of being the whistler. Wilxn--your semi-standard nerd who was almost always good in class–thought the situation was so absurd as to be humorous.
“It’s not me,” Wilxn said, smiling.
“Don’t get smart with me,” Mr. Duncan snapped at Wilxn. “I’ll take those glasses off of you and show you somethin’!”
Sadly, this only provided confirmation bias to what I felt about authority figures in general.
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