... so one day we thought for a giggle, at the appointed time for his geography class, we would all get out our French books and pretend that he had it wrong and that we were due for a French class. The whole class took part in this ploy. So when Narin arrived: "but sir, we're meant to be having a French class now". Initially he was very flustered (what fun!), but as we insisted more and more, he turned very angry - we'd not seen this before - and eventually snapped: "OK then, if it's French you want then that's what you'll do!". Opening the French textbook at random he instructed us to work at a series of exercises, and maintained this throughout the lesson.

It was brilliant - none of us wanted to do French instead of his simple geography, so in turning our joke against us he commanded the greatest respect he ever mustered in his short (I imagine) career in teaching ...
(NT 64-71)