Maher 1

Colin Maher
English 115
Professor DerOhanessian
24 September 2014
Class From Hell
Its four fourty five in the morning as I arrive at my friend Stephen's house to pick him up
for the mandatory AP U.S. History extra help sessions. As I wait for him to come outside I just
about fall asleep. He finally comes walking out to my car and yells to me, You ready for this
shit? I just downed two Red Bulls I just looked at him with the kind of death stare that says
bring me a bed. Once we made our way into the classroom and Mr. Klipfel the teacher began
lecturing, I quickly began to realize that all extra help mornings were was the same group of
students listening to yesterday's same lecture. This happened every Tuesday, and every time I
would sit there and have notes in front of me that were based on what he was already talking
about. I would be in that classroom at five in the morning every Tuesday wondering why I was
there in the first place. As if I didnt have enough on my plate to begin with. The AP world is an
interesting thing in High School. There is no telling how a classroom will end up being taught.
The varieties of teachers and their approaches on how they run a classroom. Some may choose to
complicate the workload given to a student to prepare them for college but in reality are just
causing more stress to a student with no real results. This is because school can be a
tremendously disorienting place (Rose). When Rose speaks of it being a disorienting place he
means it is easy to lose sight of what you are doing or why you are there through the stress of
school classes and social events. My experience in AP U.S. History under enforcement of Mr.

Maher 2
Klipfel has influenced my writing by being able to stand by what I write in confidence and my
overall behavior as a student today.
Now the only reason I enrolled in AP U.S. was because my friend told me it was going to
be a good class and that I should take it with him. At first it was a descent class, the workload
was a little steep, but nothing I could not handle. It was not until probably a month into the
course did I realize that it was a terrible mistake. This was because nothing could be done about
my poor performance in that class. I was trying everything in my power to enhance my grade but
nothing was good enough. I would always have a long night and early morning which after a
while starts to take a tole on a person. Everything begins to seem harder and perseverance starts
to fade. You begin to put all of your attention in the one class and take the other classes less
seriously, which can cause even more stress if the other classes begin to slip as well. I wished
that I had never enrolled in the class in the first place, but that was my choice and I had to stick
with it.
The class was taught by Mr. Klipfel who was one of the most odd looking people I have
ever encountered. He was completely bald, I don't even think he had eye brows, and he would
shake constantly when he talks. He is a very small man with a deep voice and would talk as if he
had something to prove. He would always have to justify his teachings by describing a success
story with a previous student of his. I would hope that in ten years of teaching that the guy would
have at least one success story. He would then proceed to say, If you can't seem to understand
that fact then I really don't know what to tell you. This I felt was very one way thinking and that
a teacher should not really be saying that to students because if they do not really get it than it
encourages them to just give up because he will not go into it further. Everything in his class had

Maher 3
to be done the right way including notes. This is a topic that I strongly disagree on. Notes should
be personal and help a student retain the information how they feel best. If the notes are graded
on how the teacher wants them to be graded it defeats the purpose. I do understand what he was
trying to do, help prepare students for college level notes, so I went along with it. I did the notes
the way he wanted it and for the most part got adequate scores on them.
As the semester went by I noticed my grade begin to slip a little, nothing too bad but I
thought I would address it with him to see what I could do to improve the grade further. I set up a
meeting with him before school and he begins by asking why I am here and I told him I wanted
to improve my grade. The next question was what is your goal. I answered with I want to pass
this class because that was my goal and purpose for meeting with him, See that's your problem
man, you have no goals. Your just worried about this class with no future goals planned. He
said. Now I took offense to this because of course I have goals for the future I wanted at the time
to attend a four year university and study engineering, but that was not the purpose of meeting
him. He was my history teacher and I was there for help in history not to talk about m future
plans that are none of his business. I met with him for an hour and not once did we discuss how I
can better my notes or better my grade in the class. He then asked me; Have you ever seen a
Dog race before? yes I know what they are I responded. You know the fake rabbit on the
track that the dogs chase think of that as your goals, you need to find your rabbit. he said in his
most philosophical voice that he could use. I further looked into the analogy that he told me that
day. He wants me to mindlessly chase around a goal around a circular track like a dog would. I
left his room in disbelief because as far as A.P. History went, I was in the same boat. He did not
tell me anything. Still I further tried to better my grade by going to essay revisions for the long

Maher 4
papers we assigned to write. I would go into the room with half of the confidence than I normally
would. Once he would read my paper, or anyone's for that matter, he would mark it beyond
belief. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however the criticism was there, but not helpful. He
would almost always say to me that if I didn't get it, I don't know what to tell you. I never liked
hearing that because after awhile it can feel degrading and make a person feel not as confident as
they should.
I went on just trying to give more of an effort inside that classroom and in my studies
outside of it. My confidence level was hard to keep up however. Because nothing was good
enough when I would turn work in. I had Mr. Klipfel help me with one of my essays and he told
me the thesis I should write, so word for word I wrote what he told me. Once I turned in the
paper he told me that the thesis was not good and that it needed work, when the thesis was his
work entirely. Although he did that with most students, there was almost never a thesis that was
good when we turned in essays. I always wondered how out of the three classes he taught that
not one thesis was ever good enough. It was his way of retaining power within the classroom,
because a student will never tell the teacher he is wrong they will always go to the teacher for
help to further improve their own grade. This is why he practically fails all of his students, I
believe that at the end of the semester there were four A's out of all the classes he taught. He
makes up for it by offering a summer assignment that will prove to him that you are worthy of
a higher grade. Mind you that you are technically done with the class all together and that this is
the summer after taking the course. He would go back and change your grade on your report
card. This made some people look at him as a giving man, I look at it as a power trip gone
terribly bad. The idea of failing all of your students just so they can come crawling to you for

Maher 5
more help is maddening.
Despite being enrolled in the class from Hell, I did learn from certain aspects of the class
that I am grateful for. I believe that the experience has made me a more confident writer because
I had to learn to always be confident in my work despite what my teacher was telling me. When I
am more confident in what I am writing than I do not hesitate to say what needs to be said, and
thats what an essay is, saying what needs to be said in the right way. The experience also taught
me perseverance and that if you are able to tough out a situation and just deal with it, than there
is always a way to emerge better off from it. I did learn a lot about dealing with people who have
a higher rank than you and I will say that it will probably help me my future work world. If I
happen to have a difficult boss, rather than complain and hate the guy, just tell him what he
wants to hear and further feed his ego until you are able to get what you want. This I believe is a
very important lesson that I took from all of this and has already helped me in my current life.
Being enrolled in AP U.S. History was a mistake, but I do not regret it, for I have taken a
lot from the class that was unexpected. After being criticized and in a way degraded I have
learned that I always need to be confident in not only the classroom, but everything I do. It has
taught me to rely on myself more and to not put all my hope in the hands of others. This is
because being Independent and taking action for yourself was a big part of the class. Having to
go through that kind of class taught me the importance of perseverance and to never give up on
something that you started. The stress and difficulties that I went through in that class did teach
me things about life that I believe will help me in my future life.

Maher 6
Work Cited
Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary: A moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of
Americas Educationally Unprepared. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print