Mike Burns

I am an AACPS: Alum, Andover High School

In 1974 I entered the eleventh grade at Andover High School.  One of my classes was Advanced Placement U. S. History. I knew I was in for something different when my teacher had assigned us a research paper over the previous summer. I was right. This was the hardest class I would take at Andover – and, as it would turn out, in college or law school for that matter. By far.

We had a paper due every two weeks. I was, truth be told, in a panic. I went through the first few weeks before our first exam wondering what I had gotten myself into. Fortunately, I loved history – I would major in it in college.  I took the first exam and got a 99. That was a happy result but, on examination of the exam, I found that My teacher had taken a point off on a question for my not noting a fact which, it occurred to me, we had never been told about. That struck me as unfair so I decided to ask him about it.

This was not, I can assure you, my normal behavior. I was, although I hid it well, extremely shy, especially in interactions with teachers. Frankly, they scared the willies out of me. Still, I thought that, in spite of the 99, I had not been treated fairly and off I went, full of fear as I was.

So, I approached him and pointed out that he hadn’t given us the information that he took the point off for. He readily agreed. I was somewhat taken aback and pointed out that wasn’t fair. He readily agreed. And, for one of the very first times I did something which would later become absolutely normal for me in similar situations as I got older and bolder–I stood up for myself and said, what a minute, I’m not going to take that answer.

To which he said Burns, this is Advanced Placement history; no one should ever get a hundred on a test. To which I reacted as I never had with a teacher before–I told him that position was nonsense. For me, it was like another kid picking him up and tossing him out of a window. He just laughed and said don’t worry about it; I can tell already that you are one of the best students I have ever had.

Thus began my friendship with what quickly became the first adult to take me seriously as a peer. For the first time in my life, I could argue with an adult who took me seriously. And it was at Andover that teachers like that history teacher did that for me. Without them, I would not be who I am. I owe them a lot.