My least favorite teacher always gets some thought in December

I was really lucky to have some extraordinary teachers through my education.  But there are exceptions.

When I was in high school, we had an elective called "Economics."  As I recall it was less about economic theory (probably a good thing, at that age) and more about the economy.

Anyway, the teacher who offered the class was extremely popular.   He favored athletes, boys, and the kids who were popular.  This made him unlike a lot of the other faculty, who tended to like students like me who were bright, grade-grubbing, eager to please, and hopelessly nerdy.  Even as I recognized I wasn't his kind of student, I clamored for his attention.  It was pathetic.  I am not even go into how hard I tried to win his approval.  It is both comic and tragic.

It wasn't until I got to college that I looked back on his classes (I took more than one with him, of course) and realized how biased he was, how much of his charm was less about good teaching and more about tapping into things we 16-year-old hormonal brats thought was cool.  I resent him a little, but mostly I'm disgusted with myself for how blind I was and how pitiful my ongoing attempts to impress him truly were.

I occasionally think of him this time of year, thanks to the news.   In his class, he assigned a "term paper" on whatever economic-related topic we chose. I elected "The Economic Impact of Christmas."  He thought it was a lame topic, however, and discouraged me from pursuing it.  He didn't think a bunch of people shopping made for much of an impact.  Nothing worth writing about.  For some stubborn reason I did it anyway.  It was challenging to find articles and data on the topic (this was before the internet age and online magazines and google searches), but the stuff I found was interesting, about shopping and charitable giving and other monetary aspects of the holiday.  Which are, I assure you, substantial.

Nowadays I regularly see loads of data about the economic impact of Christmas, particularly in the news.  NPR was just discussing what the blizzard means for the European economy, given that it hit during typically busy pre-christmas shopping weeks.  The local media has been interviewing stores that do the majority of their yearly business in December.  That kind of thing--lots of it.  I've been seeing it for years.  And every year, I think, You don't know everything, Mr. M.  And I am sorry I wasted any emotional energy on trying to get your attention.  And I am so freaking glad I ran across so few teachers like you in my life.