Frederick enjoyed being a teacher, and he liked to think that his students liked him as well. He didn't really see himself as the 'cool' teacher, but he knew that among the teachers of the required subjects at the middle school, he was the one that many students dreaded getting the least. In multiple cases when a child struggled in history, or an incident happened in their old class, they would be transferred specifically to his class, where many of them thrived.
Many students in the high school still contacted him for help with tutoring or advice in their high school history classes. He didn't have the time to tutor them all, but he could answer a question here or there, and if someone needed more help he would recommend them to a good tutor he knew, and he would even pay for their first few sessions. If they showed real improvement in the subject with the tutoring, showing that they were really trying and just needed the extra help, he would continue to pay for them.
Frederick had always thought that school should do three things for children. It should give them something to do with their time, because a bored child is a terror of a child. It should teach them how to live in the adult world. And it should teach them how to learn.
Many of Frederick's students didn't know what he meant when he said he wanted them to know how to learn. After a school year with him, they understood. He didn't want to just stand in front of them, lecturing about names and dates that they would forget after mere seconds of hearing them. Not only would that be boring for the children and make them despise him and his favorite subject, but he would quickly feel burnt out and start to resent the subject and the students himself, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Frederick taught them, but he spent a fair bit of his time helping the kids be familiar with the textbooks. He showed them all the different ways that one could use the index to find the information they needed. He taught kids different ways of taking notes and helped them find a method that worked for them. He let them use those notes for his tests, and regularly had a race or two to see who could find a specific detail in the textbook, just by using the index.
Frederick thought that the curriculum itself put too much emphasis on memorization, and not everybody was good at that kind of thing. Or they, rightfully so, saved their memorization efforts on subjects that they actually cared about, such as sports or movies. Frederick wasn't here to give the kids words to memorize. He became a teacher to give the kids skills they could maybe use later in their life, and he just happened to be doing so through the subject of history.
Of course, he was still expected to give kids tests and homework, and he did. He still had to follow the guidelines set out for him. He just did it his own way.
Today was testing day. Frederick liked to have all of his classes take tests on the same day, even though they all learned different things. It helped him to be more organized himself, so he didn't get confused as to which class had a test, which class had homework, and which class had a hands-on lesson.
The second class of the day had just started when he got a call from the front office, saying that his nephew was there. Frederick felt both concerned and a little eager at the news, which was the norm when it came to Fred.
"I'll be right down." Frederick said. He hung up and looked at his students. He picked up the test papers from off the desk and started handing them out.
"Remember, open notebook for the first fifteen minutes, and open textbook after that." Frederick said. The kids wouldn't have enough time to use the textbook to find all of the answers, so they had to rely on their own notes and memories for at least part of the test. The textbook was mostly for checking answers and boosting scores.
"I need to go to the office." Frederick said. "I'll be back in five minutes. I'm trusting you to behave yourselves. You know the consequences if you don't." Frederick tried to make things interesting for the kids, but he wasn't just the fun teacher who only ever played games. He was strict and stern, and wasn't afraid of standing up to his students or their parents like many of his peers were.
Frederick left his classroom, quickly going into the room next door to tell the neighboring teacher to keep an ear out for his kids, and then he made his way to the office, trying to figure out what Fred was doing here.
Frederick let himself in and found Fred sitting on one of the chairs, kicking his feet. He looked happy enough, which meant that he probably wasn't sick and definitely hadn't gotten into a fight at school. It also meant that he was probably able to verbalize why he was there.
"Hey, Fred." Frederick knelt in front of the eight year old. "Why aren't you at school?"
"A lot of kids were sick yesterday." Fred said. "They don't want everyone to get sick, so they called the parents and said there was no school for the rest of the week." Fred kicked his legs some more. "I think Mom and Dad forgot, and when I tried to tell Dad this morning he thought I was just faking because I didn't want to go to school."
Frederick had suspected something along those lines. Fred had been getting better at going to school, but on days when he really shouldn't be there, or if it was too much for him, and his parents didn't understand, the boy would come here and Frederick would watch him for the rest of the school day. The offices at both of the schools knew about this arrangement, and they usually had someone from the elementary school walk Fred down the street to the middle school. With the elementary school being closed for the day, Fred had walked on his own, which wasn't ideal, but Frederick wasn't about to scold him for it when he hadn't had a choice.
"Come on, kid." Frederick stood up and held a hand out to Fred "I need to get back to my class. They're taking a test. You can color or read for a bit."
"I want to try the test." Fred said. Frederick knew the kid didn't like tests, or school in general, but he saw his visits to Frederick's class as a game, like he was playing pretend. Frederick encouraged him, because he would do anything to give this boy an enthusiasm about school.
"I'll see what I can do." Frederick said. He had an idea growing in his mind. One that he thought his students might enjoy. When they got inside of the classroom the students immediately stopped their tests. Even the most studious of middle schoolers could be easily distracted when somebody showed up who wasn't normally there. Especially a little kid who was five or six years younger than all of them.
"Everybody, pencils down and eyes on me." Frederick said. He squeezed Fred's hand. "This is my nephew, Fred. He's going to be joining us today." He gave Fred a test paper and a pencil. "I have an extra credit opportunity for all of you. Fred's going to have some questions about the test, and while I can tell him anything he might want to know, I think that all of you can too. So if you help Fred find the answer, you'll get extra credit."
Frederick had found that many people learned best if they actually taught what they knew. It forced them to really think things through, and they may remember the information for longer than if they were just writing down something they read.
Frederick didn't put a time limit on his tests. The kids had the full class period to work, and if they needed more time they could come in after or before school, or during lunch. Nobody liked to give up their free time to take a test, so kids didn't normally take advantage of his offer, but he kept his doors open just in case.
Frederick sat at his desk and watched the students work. They weren't really focusing on the test as much as he normally wanted them to, but they looked like they were enjoying themselves. They were relaxed, and they played Fred's little game of pretend with him, explaining points of history to Fred and showing him their notes and books.
Fred didn't finish his test by the time class was over, but all the students did. The kids left, though a number of them stopped to give Fred a high five before they made their way to their next class.
One of the kids lingered, standing awkwardly near her chair and shifting her feet. Sometimes the kids all had a tendency to blur together, but Frederick knew this girl, because he knew her type. She was shy and lacked confidence so much that it hurt to see. She was behind on all of her classes because she frequently didn't do the work, because she didn't see the point. She didn't think she was smart enough, so she didn't even try.
"Daisy." Frederick came closer to the girl, sitting in the chair across from her. "Did you have a question?"
"I…yes." Daisy brushed her red hair away from his face. "But not about the test."
"Did you finish the test?" Frederick asked. Daisy folded in on herself and shook her head. She wouldn't even look him in the eye. Frederick didn't care about that. He knew that she was still listening to him. "Do you need more time?"
"I can't do this." Daisy said. She pushed the test towards Frederick, but he didn't take it.
"I think you can." Frederick said.
"But I can't remember anything." Daisy sounded like she was about to start crying. Frederick hoped she didn't. He wasn't bothered by tears, necessarily, but he didn't know how to provide comfort.
"I'm not asking you to remember things." Frederick said. "Bucking brontosauruses, Daisy, if I wanted memorized answers, I would teach robots, not kids." His dead-pan humor didn't always land with the kids, but Daisy gave a little sob of a laugh, and that was a win in his book. "All I'm asking is that you try, and I know you know how to do that."
"But I'm going to get it wrong." She said quietly.
"You might." Frederick said. "But you might get it right. And if you don't try, you won't really know, will you?" Daisy didn't agree with him, but she didn't argue. "I'll tell you what, come in during lunch, and you can finish your test." He would be able to help her if she got stuck or needed guidance.
Daisy nodded and wiped her eyes. He wished he knew how to help her more. "Now, what was your question?"
"Oh." Daisy blinked. "Uh, why did you say that Fred was your nephew? Because I know his family, and I didn't know you were related."
Frederick looked towards Fred. "You know Daisy?"
"Oh, yeah." Fred smiled. "She's one of Daphne's big sisters. Our families have dinner sometimes." Frederick was happy to hear that the boy's friendship was going well. He'd known this family for a bit now though, and he knew that Fred's parents didn't have time for a family dinner, let alone one with the family of the friend of his son. Frederick couldn't help but think that Fred's parents were up to something. He didn't say so though, because he knew that it just upset Fred when Frederick said something negative about his parents. The boy didn't need to be in the middle of their disagreements.
Frederick made a mental note of these dinners, but he put it on the back-burner. That could be a problem for another day.
"I'm a family friend." Frederick said to Daisy. "Fred's parents are very busy, so I watch him when they can't." Or when they wouldn't, but Fred didn't need to hear that, and Daisy didn't need to know it.
Daisy's eyes lit up ever so slightly. It was the closest thing to happy that Frederick had seen from her. She looked towards Fred, who had gotten bored of their conversation and turned his focus to climbing on Frederick's chair.
"I'm glad." She said. "I've been a little worried about him. Daphne says he has a hard time in school and doesn't have any other friends except her, and he's always so quiet when our families have dinner. He never really says a word. I'm glad he's not like that all the time." Frederick could hear the words she wasn't saying. That she was glad he wasn't like her.
"He looks so happy here." Daisy said as she watched Fred play. "He looks safe." Not just physically safe, though there was certainly that. Fred felt safe to be himself with Frederick, without fear of judgement, and that was all he wanted.
"I try." Frederick said. "I hope you know you're safe here too."
Daisy just gave him a small smile. "I'll see you at lunch." She gathered her stuff, waved goodbye to Fred, and left to hurry to her next class. Frederick had a free period. He usually spent that time grading or preparing for his next lesson. Today he had Fred in his class, and the boy still wanted to play school.
"Alright, Fred," Frederick turned to face the front of the room. "You've seen me teach. Why don't you show me how you do it?"
Fred smiled. "I'm the teacher?"
"I don't see why not." Frederick said.
"But what do I teach?" Fred asked. When he played his own games he just made it up as he went. When he played someone else's games he liked to know exactly what the rules were.
"Tell me what you've been learning in school." Frederick said. Fred didn't feel like he knew a lot from school, but he had a lot of confidence in what he did know, and Frederick watched proudly as Fred grabbed a piece of paper and started telling him how multiplication was like a shortcut for adding. Fred talked about how it was confusing to read out 5+5+5+5+5+5, because it was easy to lose or add a 5 somewhere in there. It was easier to read and write 5x6, and meant just the same thing.
Frederick obviously knew this, but he couldn't be happier that Fred understood it enough to explain it to him. Frederick had spent hours talking Fred through multiplication, trying to explain it to him in a way he would understand. He'd wondered if the boy truly understood, and it was very satisfying to know that he did. It made Frederick feel like he was doing something right.