What I Am :: Jan 9, 10:42 AM

My seventh-grade English teacher was not normal. Not bad, but he was really a member of a band and a substitute teacher, but for that year (and only that year) he was a permanent teacher.

I liked him. He was a cool guy, and very fun to listen to. On the other hand, his coverage of the material wasn’t spectacular, but who says the district standards are any good in the first place?

One day he praised a poem an unknown student wrote. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I do remember the key line:

I know what I know, if you know what I mean.

I wouldn’t have known back then, but this is a line in the song What I Am. Originally released in 1988, a cover by Emma Bunton of the Spice Girls was released in 1999 and 2001. Perfect timing.

At the time my teacher said of the poem, “It’s deep. I would never have expected him to write something like that.”

Did the student actually relate to this song? Or was this just laziness on his part, copying the lyrics of a song?

Would I have told the teacher it was from a song, if I’d known it back then? How would he take it?

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