To My 7th-Grade Teacher: Yes, Learning Can be Fun

Sometimes life’s most important lessons come from being shown what NOT to do. Such a lessoncame to me courtesy of my seventh-grade history teacher, who announced on our very first day that “school is not supposed to be fun.”

My Teacher, the Drill Sergeant

“I am an army brat,” Mrs. Wood declared, marching back and forth, high heels clonking the floor, hair pulled tight up on her head, her black pant suit stiff as a drill sergeant’s uniform.

She promised that her class would not be fun, and by...