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“All right,” said Mrs. Hardlick, “let’s see if we can get through the rest of the day without your disrupting my class again, shall we?” Mrs. Hardlick looked down at her book. “Where was I? Okay. Who can tell me the capital of France?”
Nobody raised a hand. Angeline knew the answer but she didn’t dare raise her hand.
“Oh, come on class,” urged Mrs. Hardlick. “What’s the capital of Paris—er, I mean what’s the capital of France?”
Still nobody raised a hand.
“Geez!” thought Angeline. “She even told them the answer!”
Philip finally raised his hand. “Chicago?” he tried.
“No, I’m sorry,” said Mrs. Hardlick, “but that was a good guess. Chicago is the capital of Illinois.”
Springfield was the capital of Illinois, but Angeline knew better than to tell that to Mrs. Hardlick.
Judy Martin raised her hand. “Cleveland?” she tried. “Or Massachusetts?”
“No, but those were both very excellent choices, Judy,” said Mrs. Hardlick. “It shows you’re thinking. Cleveland is the capital of Ohio and Massachusetts is a state.”
Columbus was the capital of Ohio.
Finally Mrs. Hardlick proudly told the class that the capital of France was Paris. “Write that down in your notebooks so you don’t forget.”
Angeline realized something she knew all along. Mrs. Hardlick liked it when the class gave wrong answers. Mrs. Hardlick liked to be able to give the right answer herself.
“What’s the capital of Lon—I mean, what’s the capital of England?” asked Mrs. Hardlick.
“I don’t believe it,” thought Angeline. “She almost gave it away again.”
Angeline raised her hand, hoping that Mrs. Hardlick would call on her so she could give a wrong answer, but Philip also had his hand raised. “London,” he said.
“Yes, that’s right,” said Mrs. Hardlick, sounding a little disappointed. She should have called on Angeline. Angeline would have said Mexico City.
After that, Angeline raised her hand to every question but Mrs. Hardlick refused to call on her, until she had no other choice.
“Who was the second president of the United States?” she asked.
Angeline’s arm shot up like a rocket.
Mrs. Hardlick looked around. There was nobody else to call on. “Okay, Angel
ine,” she said dejectedly.
“Betsy Ross!” said Angeline.
Mrs. Hardlick smiled. “No, I’m sorry,” she said, “but that was good thinking! That is a correct answer, but to a different question. The second president of the United States was—now write this down in your notebooks—John Quincy Adams.”
Angeline wrote it down even though she knew that John Quincy Adams was the sixth president and that just plain John Adams was the second. But she had to wonder how Mrs. Hardlick could get it wrong when she had the answer written right there in front of her.
Mrs. Hardlick called on Angeline several more times.
“What was Mark Twain’s real name?”
“Clark Kent.”
“How much is twelve times twelve?”
“Twelve.”
