Matthew323
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I had a Mechanical Drafting teacher in high school that taught school as an avocation. His primary job was as an architect. He, & his wife, also an architect, built their custom house in the suburbs of Baltimore City completely by themselves, to include operating all of the heavy machinery used in excavation, concrete, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.
He was the poster child for a type-A personality.
He had his own 3-dimensional drawings with people & landscaping posted on the walls of his classroom showcasing some of the buildings that he had designed.
In addition, he was the winner of the contest in the early 60's for the design of the teardrop-shaped Michelob beer bottle, for which he took a $0.01 royalty per bottle produced, instead of a flat fee.
What I recall most about him was his desire to make us strive for excellence. He was the only teacher in that very elite college preparatory public high school that would allow a student to achieve a higher test score than 100. He did this by awarding an extra 5 points if the drawing that you turned in had perfect arrow points. He had a very specific way that he wanted that arrow point drawn, and every single one on the drawing had to not only match his ideal point, but be exactly the same in size.
Only a handful of his students over the course of two semesters in a calendar year ever got that coveted 105 marked in red ink at the top of their drawing when he handed back the drawings after grading them.
He taught 6-7 classes every day, approximately 30 students per class, 5 days per week, 2 semesters per year. You only attended his class 3 days per week. My guess was he taught approximately 550-600 students per semester.
A good year saw maybe 5-7 of those 105 grades being handed out. They were so rare that the entire student body would know by the next day.
That meant that a student had a less than 1 in 833 hundredth thousand chance of obtaining the 105 grade.
He was not a popular teacher with his fellow teachers. My best guess would be because he did not need the job, he taught as a way to give back. Second reason would be that he was a secular Iranian. Third reason was that awarding extra credit for excellence in achievement flies in the face of how public school administrations think.
Needless to say, even though he was uncompromising, he was a popular teacher.
I was fortunate to receive a 105 on one of my drawings in the 11th grade.
Anybody else here have a similar story?
Edit:
I now realize that by making us focus on a part of the drawing considered insignificant to most people, the arrow point, he was forcing us to pay more attention to the rest of the drawing as well. A sneaky way of making teenagers with short attention spans narrow their focus, and become better at what they were attempting to do.
Without them even realizing what was being done to them.
He was the poster child for a type-A personality.
He had his own 3-dimensional drawings with people & landscaping posted on the walls of his classroom showcasing some of the buildings that he had designed.
In addition, he was the winner of the contest in the early 60's for the design of the teardrop-shaped Michelob beer bottle, for which he took a $0.01 royalty per bottle produced, instead of a flat fee.
What I recall most about him was his desire to make us strive for excellence. He was the only teacher in that very elite college preparatory public high school that would allow a student to achieve a higher test score than 100. He did this by awarding an extra 5 points if the drawing that you turned in had perfect arrow points. He had a very specific way that he wanted that arrow point drawn, and every single one on the drawing had to not only match his ideal point, but be exactly the same in size.
Only a handful of his students over the course of two semesters in a calendar year ever got that coveted 105 marked in red ink at the top of their drawing when he handed back the drawings after grading them.
He taught 6-7 classes every day, approximately 30 students per class, 5 days per week, 2 semesters per year. You only attended his class 3 days per week. My guess was he taught approximately 550-600 students per semester.
A good year saw maybe 5-7 of those 105 grades being handed out. They were so rare that the entire student body would know by the next day.
That meant that a student had a less than 1 in 833 hundredth thousand chance of obtaining the 105 grade.
He was not a popular teacher with his fellow teachers. My best guess would be because he did not need the job, he taught as a way to give back. Second reason would be that he was a secular Iranian. Third reason was that awarding extra credit for excellence in achievement flies in the face of how public school administrations think.
Needless to say, even though he was uncompromising, he was a popular teacher.
I was fortunate to receive a 105 on one of my drawings in the 11th grade.
Anybody else here have a similar story?
Edit:
I now realize that by making us focus on a part of the drawing considered insignificant to most people, the arrow point, he was forcing us to pay more attention to the rest of the drawing as well. A sneaky way of making teenagers with short attention spans narrow their focus, and become better at what they were attempting to do.
Without them even realizing what was being done to them.
Last edited:
