Miss Bryan

I have recently read Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson (he was nice enough to visit UNC Asheville’s campus in 2007). Aside from the horror stories of Tyson’s experience growing up in Oxford, NC in the 1970’s (segregated schools and racially fueled murders without repercussions after the Civil Rights Movement), the book included one of the most amusing descriptions of a teacher that I have ever read:

Miss Bryan had been teaching the fourth grade at Credle since large reptiles walked the earth. She was an utterly unreconstructed Confederate. When she talked about the Civil War, which she firmly insisted that we refer to as “the War Between the States,” I was pretty sure that she had marched up Cemetery Ridge with Pickett, though this could not have been true or the Yankees never would have won at Gettysburg. I had run afoul of Miss Bryan early in fourth grade, when she gave a true-false quiz on North Carolina history, the final question of which was “Granville County is the best place to live on earth.” Methodist ministers moved every few years, and so I considered myself a man of the world. My grandmother’s house, for example, was only eighty miles from Oxford, and anything that I wanted at her local drugstore lunch counter—fresh squeezed orangeades and limeades, a “cherry smash”—was charged to “Miz Buie” without my even asking. And so I naturally marked the statement false, a mistake that Miss Bryan designated with a big red X and for which she deducted ten points. No discussion. As far as she was concerned, this was a simple point of historical fact (Tyson 22).

Sadly, I suppose the rationale of why this is so hilarious is that EVERYONE has labeled a former teacher a “Miss Bryan.” This resonates with me well as I also find it comical that every time I tell someone my future occupation I get bombarded with “worst teacher” stories. Its not that I do not care about these stories, or that I do not take a story as advice for how I should not treat my students, it’s that I really want to hear the part where the former student earned resentment from the teacher.

There is a teensy bit of Miss Bryan in all of us (not just teachers). Everyone has their own biases and opinions—something that is best to take into consideration before letting those feelings overlap with the curriculum. However, teachers and students are going to butt heads occasionally—some of this being healthy while other times it is disparaging.

This is not to say that it is okay for a teacher to be flat out mean to students, but if one of my students fails a test and then rolls my house in toilet paper, then I can assure you that they will not be getting any special treatment in class.

Just sayin’.

Heather