Having done twelve years in RC schools, two of them in Jesuit 9th and 10th grades, I learned to see teaching priests as intellectual bullies. They won those rounds.
Thirty-plus years later I got my revenge. While on a jury with a Catholic priest who looked young enough to have recently completed training, we went to lunch and happened to sit close enough to talk. I told him I had been a Catholic. He told me my life was absurd. I had days earlier seen a dictionary definition of ‘absurd’ as meaningless. I told him I saw it as my responsibility to give my life meaning. He IMMEDIATELY clammed up and oh how I rejoiced. I had at last scored a win.
Debates can be learning experiences, so while Bob was helping TA-ers improve their debating abilities, TA-ers were helping him improve his bullying abilities.
