The Deaf Teacher

The old lady had been a teacher at the school for as long as anyone could remember. The sounds of joy and laughter that filled a classroom would turn into a stifling silence within seconds of her entering. Whenever she saw kids talking in huddles, she would think that they were hatching a new scheme to trouble her; whenever she heard kids laughing, she would think that they were laughing at her.

Not to say that she wasn't good at her job. She was a good teacher. Only, too paranoid. And lately, she'd started going a bit deaf too.

She was in a particularly foul mood that morning. First, she overslept because she couldn't hear her alarm. Then, her own daughter had told her that she ought to get her ears checked. And finally, she'd almost been run over by a car while crossing the road, because she couldn't hear it's honking.

She realized something was amiss as soon as she walked into her class of tenth graders. The room seemed unnaturally quiet.

"Good morning, kids," she said loudly, with her back to the class as she erased the blackboard. There was no response. She assumed they were trying to mess with her, so she let it slide. She finished clearing the board, turned around and sat on her chair facing her students.

"We will continue our reading of George Orwell's Animal Farm today. Can all of you please turn to page 47 of your books and commence silent reading?" Again, she received no response. Normally, whenever she asked the class to read silently, tiny murmurs of sound would erupt from the children's lips as the sincere ones started reading and the rowdy ones started talking to each other while pretending to read. But today, nothing. There was pin-drop silence in the room. For a fleeting moment, she was elated at the thought of finally having disciplined the most notorious bunch of children ever to have passed through the school's system. Then she saw that there lips were moving like they always did, and yet she couldn't hear a sound. That's when she started freaking out.

She got up violently and shouted, "You - first bench. Stand up and read loudly for the whole class". The kids were shocked at her sudden outburst, and yet the boy she'd pointed to stood up and started reading. His lips were moving, she could even make out some of the words. Only, she couldn't hear any of them. She couldn't hear a sound. She walked up to the boy and shouted at him to read louder. She saw his chest heaving up and down and his lips forming words, his eyes fixed on the book in his hands. Everyone else was staring at her, surprised. That's when she completely lost it.

"Noooooooooooooooooooo," she screamed as she ran towards the door. I can still hear myself, she thought. What does that even mean? Am I going mad? She decided that perhaps she was. "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I'm NOT going MAD!" she screamed as she exited the classroom and started running.

They knew that they would face detention and their parents were likely to be summoned, but the opportunity was just too good too pass up. And so, as the teacher went out of earshot, the most notorious kids ever to have passed through the school's system finally burst out laughing.