It’s been 30 years and he still remembers the lessons that he learned from his 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Yates.

This was really cool and sweet. I hope he finds the book. Miss Yates was a real one. The “don’t argue against yourself” lesson is one I wish I was taught.

mastering awkward silence is a superpower

I really want to know what book he is talking about.

I remember my first grade English teacher Ms. La Day telling me “you’re going to be a very hard young lady to love if you keep acting out”. I’m 28 now so

For someone with adhd I think this is my vibe. I’ve got to get this for my kiddo.

This has to be a generational thing, because while I was also taught by my mother growing up to not argue against myself, I don't see the application in the story. He tells it like a great lesson on self-advocacy in the face of adversity. As though it's parallel to trying to get an opportunity that isn't normally offered to someone in your standing, or being told you can't do something and rising above the criticism and prejudgment to prove yourself capable. But all I heard was a person being told they could volunteer, and in exchange they'd get to pick off a list I assume they either knew or didn't know in advance and that she leveraged social awkwardness to get something that wasn't offered. It's cool that it worked and I don't necessarily think she's a bad person for it, but I do think it's kind of rude in a way? It's like being told you can answer a survey for a coupon for a free drink of XYZ value, doing the survey, then going to claim your free drink and asking for a more expensive one. Sitting their awkwardly saying "I've already chosen my drink" and being obstinate isn't exactly in line with not arguing against yourself or self-advocacy in the face of adversity. Just seems entitled.

But it's neat he has such a tie to the book and such vivid memories of it. My favorite English teacher in middle school would threaten to whip us with partially cooked spaghetti if we failed to do our homework. That always stuck with me as a rather funny way to try and get kids to stick to something and I use it frequently with my cousins' kids that I tutor. Definitely get having such important memories that last like that.

Nice story. Two takeaways:

1. You can’t always bully someone with awkwardness into getting things you want, sometimes you’ll just get security called on you.

2. People like this guy scare me because my memory is horrible when it comes to things like this. I feel like I have a bunch of useless snippets about social outcomes and meanwhile this guy could write a detailed novel on his vocab lesson.

Is dude trying not to be the new micro machine man for commercials. Dude take a breath Don't talk as fast.

I love this,you just never know how you impact someones life.

So she completely ignored that there's a list because she wanted better prize than the other teachers? Her behavior and the rest of the video is indeed pretty cringe.