Schiller's process of grading the students' assignments could not exactly be called exemplary teaching; it was more like spraying venom. In any case, it completely changed Helen and the others' image of him.
So Professor Schiller had not actually been mild-tempered in everyday life. He had simply vented all his anger in class, which naturally left his mental state quite stable the rest of the time.
When class ended, Schiller had assumed those people would promptly get lost, but they were actually waiting for him at the door.
Schiller sighed and packed up his lesson plans. Helen walked over, patted him with affected maturity, and said, "Don't be angry, Professor. Getting angry makes you grow old."
Schiller looked over and found that they did not seem afraid at all. They were nothing like the Robins, who wanted to bolt several miles away the moment they saw him scowling.
Robert stretched and said, "Good thing I never went to college. I couldn't have written that either."
Night Thrasher said helplessly, "It wasn't that difficult an assignment. If you can't even write a few-hundred-word essay, you really aren't suited for college."
"All right, Professor, don't be angry." Squirrel Girl came over as well and said, "It was indeed wrong of the students not to hand in their assignments, but since you've already criticized them, they'll definitely do better next time."
It was precisely because they would not do better next time that he was so angry, Schiller thought. If most of them were just hopelessly useless, he would not have dwelled on it, but most of them had an attitude problem.
Many of them were not untalented. Some had even written fairly good content, but they either misspelled words or cited sources incorrectly—mistakes they would not have made if they had been