Miss Sharp wore her long pink skirt and buttoned her white collared shirt. She chose her pink shoes this time because she wants her clothes to match perfectly; she has to be the ideal model of perfection at the teachers-parents’ conference. Teacher’s day is one week from now, so she had better leave a good impression if she wanted to please her ludicrous and generous clientele.
Miss Sharp is a sharp woman. She has a sharp nose, a sharp voice, and a sharp eyesight; she would spot a flea anywhere in the classroom, and she would smash it with one sharp blow of her hand! Lately, some kids in her first-grade class have been innocently and mistakenly calling her Miss Shark because when she got mad (which happened very often), she would rub her razor-like teeth against each other and crack her jaw open just like a wild shark!
Miss Shark, ouch! Sharp, has sharp and strict rules imposed in her class: First, every student in class must stand when she walks in. Those who forget to do it are made to stand up for the whole period. Miss Sharp also insists that everyone reads her mind and gives one answer to her questions. One day, she asked Sami: “What color are dogs?” Sami had a Beige dog, so he answered: “Dogs are beige.” Miss Sharp used her red eye to cast her spell on little Sami, then she replied in her regular sharp tone,“ No, Sami! Dogs are black!” Of course Sami, who has always been terrified of sharks, agreed and even apologized for his foolish and rash answer. Sami spread the rumor in the school, in his house, in his neighborhood and town, and now everyone believes dogs are black, even the dogs themselves!
Yes, Miss Sharp is so sharp that she insists that everyone in class gets sharp A’s. If those A’s were not sharp enough, she would have them sharpened or replaced with genuine ones. All sharp A’s students are made to sit in VIP- (Very Important Person) labeled chairs, in the front row of Miss Sharp’s class. The other students, with the less privileged B’s and C’s have to take their positions in the remaining seats labeled: Person at the back and in the corners of the classroom.
Of course, all that and more happened and happens before the teachers-parents’ meeting. Today is a new day. At meetings with parents, Miss Sharp acts less sharply like all the other sharp teachers of her kind: she looks perfect, sounds perfect, and pretend-plays. What happens in class is a secret that only Miss Sharp’s students can tell… if they dare.
A story inspired mainly by the sharp teachers who taught me in grade 5 and by those I meet regularly.
Angelique Fallah , March 2, 2012