C. Calvin detests school because he feels like he is forced to learn irrelevant material.
The Substitute
Nate Dern
Despite his tardiness, Calvin Koning casually strode down the empty hallway toward Mr. Taupe’s classroom. He had thought about ditching biology entirely, but he’d been warned that another unexcused absence would all but guarantee a failing grade.
The door to the biology classroom was covered in a full-size illustration of the human nervous system, showing the parasympathetic nerves with a level of detail Calvin found slightly disturbing. He paused before opening the door. He needed to psych himself up to stay awake for another boring lecture on some esoteric topic, like the difference between mitosis and meiosis, that had no direct application to his life. Calvin had paid just enough attention to glean that they were both about a new cell splitting from an original cell, but he couldn’t remember which one meant the new cell was the same and which one meant there was variation.
As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t his fault he wasn’t learning much biology. Mr. Taupe was boring. He wore corduroy suit coats in neutral colors, spoke without inflection, and had the habit of keeping his eyes closed a bit longer than normal when he blinked, so that for a moment it seemed possible that he’d fallen asleep in the middle of a lecture, which Calvin had done himself more than once. He was not a good student. He hated school. He hated being made to feel like the honors students were better than him or that the teachers knew more than him just because they were older. He hated being told that getting good grades now would somehow “ensure the likelihood of future success.” And he hated that if he didn’t pass biology, he’d have to repeat senior year or flunk out.
Multiple Choice: Which statement best describes Calvin's point of view about school in paragraphs 1-3?
A. Calvin knows school is important and worries about being late to class.
B. Calvin enjoys school because he has many friends and likes all his teachers.
C. Calvin detests school because he feels like he is forced to learn irrelevant material.
D. Calvin avoids attending school because he thinks he is smart enough to graduate without going to class?
choose the correct answer
1 answer