Tick… Tick…… Tick…………

As you sit in class, each minute seems to last twice as long as the last. The period drags on, and it appears that nothing can save you from your long, painful slog through this boring power point—but wait! Was that a glimpse of fiery passion in your teacher’s eyes? Will you be witness to one of the rare—or depending on the class, all-too-common—teacher rants?

Such explosions of raw emotion have been saving half-asleep students from the horrors of a lackluster lesson for decades, or maybe even centuries.

Providing a window into the true personality of an instructor, they allow students to learn something potentially much more interesting than they can find in any of their textbooks.

When a discussion about the French Revolution shifts to an impassioned speech on the terrors of bro tanks, the level of student interest more than doubles. Students laugh out loud as their teacher denounces the democratic system that lets the masses of elementary school teachers control the school schedule, proclaiming it should be decided by a dictatorship of physics teachers.

Fortunately for uninterested Liberty students, the drawn out struggle with construction has provided teachers with plenty of food for thought.

Last year, the destruction of the old library spawned the “Save the Beams” campaign in the science department, portables fostered all manner of complaints, and extensive drilling and hammering caused bursts of frustration in classrooms near the pit that once was the 500 wing.

This year, though, the list of construction-related complaints may be even longer: teachers vent about prohibited projectors, projectors that don’t work even after they are fixed, and projector screens that students can’t see; they pass snide comments about the questionable-designed and seemingly-dead landscaping; they scoff at the snail’s pace at which the workers seem to move; and they are blinded with anger as the pitiful shades fail to block the sun, instead exacerbating the glare.

All the while, students bask in the break from the monotonies of a regular day, so thank you, teachers, for sharing your passions and keeping class interesting.