Speaking Of Teachers

When I was in the tenth grade, a required course was world history. It was taught by a very eccentric country gentleman whom everyone called Fesser. Throughout the course, he emphasized several times that Napoleon Bonaparte's real defeat occurred when he invaded Russia and his army was decimated. In his own inimitable expression, Fesser insisted that Napoleon met his "Waterloo" in Russia.

The boys in the class ate this up. They would take up half a class period arguing with Fesser that Napoleon couldn't have met his Waterloo in Russia, because Waterloo was in Belgium, and the battle occurred two years after the Russian campaign.

When final exam time came, we went into the classroom to find that Fesser had written all the exam questions on the blackboard, and he proceeded to read the questions aloud to make sure everyone understood them.

Fesser raised his voice to read out the final question:

"Where did Napoleon meet his Waterloo?"

He raised his voice even louder and said, "And if anybody puts Waterloo, Belgium, I'll flunk every one of y'ens!"