Flashback

I was remembering my high-school English classes today. They were insane, and rather than explain why, I'm going to illustrate with a snippet of dialog:

Mr L: "Who can tell me what a noun is?"
Me (always a keener and, moving from another school, not yet acclimatized to the new environment): "The name of a person, place, or thing"
Mr L: "No, who can tell me what it is?"
Jim: "Something you call something?"
Mr L: "No..."
Sheri: "An action?"
Mr L: "No. Who knows?"
Blair: "A word that..."
Mr L: "STOP!"
Everyone [exchanging blank looks]
Mr L: "What did you say? Say it again"
Blair: "A word that tells you..."
Mr L: "NO! Before that"
Blair [confused]: "A word that..."
Mr L: "That's it!"
Everyone [still blank]. In the back row, Caroline starts to cry.
Mr L [triumphantly]: "It's a WORD!"

Yeah, this was grade 10. It's a wonder I still know how to read.