She created a special "Humanities" class I was a part of in which selected students could attend instead of gym class. When I petitioned to take algebra classes with the eighth graders, she backed me up and got me in.
I ran for "Historian" in student government that year. You would be given a "real" 35 mm camera to document the class that year. It was the closest option to filmmaking available. I got slaughtered by the popular cute girl.
One day the administration was performing an evaluation of the sixth grade as a whole. They sat us all in a big circle on the floor of the group room and told us we were just marooned on a deserted island with no adults. They stepped back into the observation area without any additional explanation. This was obviously a "Lord of the Flies" scenario, but we were too young to know about that. Several minutes passed with the 80 or so students whispering to each other about what to do. Eventually, the other kids just started having regular conversations with each other as we usually did when the teacher left the room. I stood up and declared that we must select a leader and asked for nominations. All of the popular kids were nominated and cheered for. The most popular kid won the election and became President of our island. At that point, the staff re-entered the room and stopped the role-play. The director of the exercise asked who thought I would be a good choice? ...the guy who stood up and took charge? All of the students burst out in applause and started chanting "Jack, Jack, Jack..." Another vote was taken and I won unanimously.
Several days later I was excused from class and called to the principal's office.
