Boring, old news, repetitive, and too long of a class describes any form of social studies in my book. But my sophomore year at Arrowhead High School, I took economics with Mr. Williamson. He made the time slip by, like minutes turning into seconds.
Mr. Williamson always started the class by talking about any news from the night before. On days like Monday, when everyone in the class was already dreaming about the next weekend to come, no one ever talked. In that case, he would slowly say, “Ooookayy then,” and start talking about how his one year old baby pooped in his pants last night and how his wife left him to the dirty job. That really got the class laughing and the students felt more comfortable with having conversation. It was nice knowing that he was an easy going person to talk to and ask any questions. Even if days were grey, foggy, or just generally a bad Monday, Mr. Williamson made them worthwhile and fun.
I will never forget the hilarious stories such as the one using a “snake” to unclog the toilet, when he roomed with a bunch of college guys. And then how it ended up being flung onto some random lady walking her little pooch innocently down the sidewalk. I believe every student had heard that story, and everyone laughed at it. But somehow, he always ended up relating his ten minute stories to our subject in class. The best part was figuring out how a snake poop unclogger could have anything in common with economics. But in the end, it did and we went on with the topic.
Another thing Mr. Williamson did was start every Friday class off with a recap of his favorite show the night before, The Office. I couldn’t even believe how much he got into it. His dramatic facial expressions were priceless and the responses from the students really got us to start talking after a full week of school at 7:20 in the morning. Mr. Williamson is a short, younger looking guy, but he is a grown man with a family and a heart for teaching kids.
Although social studies and I do not get along, that year in economics was without doubt my favorite year. Mr. Williamson teaches how to entertain and get your attention before teaching the class just plain old information about economics. I enjoyed the class, students, and most of all, Mr. Williamson.