Recently, and especially in Atlanta, cheating by teachers and administrators on high-stakes bubble-sheet tests has grabbed headlines. During my own education, I encountered only one teacher I knew was cheating. I'll call her Mrs. H. She was my ninth-grade history teacher. Very grandmotherly: white hair in a bun, rimless glasses, dumpling cheeks, at least 85 years old. She should have been retired, but the principal, who knew several useless relatives depended on her salary, said she had no birth certificate and he had no idea of her age.
She treated her students as extra grandchildren. I was the black sheep of the family. She knew my name was Neil but called me Lee no matter how many times I corrected her. Nothing wrong with her mind: she once said, more accurately than I would have liked, "Lee, you'll only be happy as the dictator of a small island."...Anyway, at the end of the semester we had to take Regents Exams to earn New York State credit. Mrs. H. handed out the bubble sheets, and as the exam progressed she stopped next to students she knew were in danger of failing. Seeing wrong answers, she pointed with the eraser end of her pencil to correct answers and say, "You should think some more about this question." The students knew the game and would change their mistakes.
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