The Principal sat at the back of the room and took notes. He was evaluating me. I was at the front of the room, teaching math. He was doing his job. I was doing mine.

I was young and malleable. At the de-briefing, he looked at his notes and said, “You said “Right?” all the time.”

I hadn’t been aware of that, but immediately saw he was right.
I hope in retrospect that I didn’t respond with the kind of rebellious attitude I took toward Administration and rules and rigidity and The Establishment and the Power Structure and…

I hope I didn’t say something like, “I hadn’t noticed that, but you know, you’re right, right? I mean, like when I was saying to the class and writing on the blackboard, 2 + 2 = 4, right? It’s a template for all equations, right? So when you get equality right, you know you’re right, right? I’m sure you agree with me, right?”

I think I must not have said that, because I was still teaching the next day. I maybe thanked him for pointing it out. But, now that he pointed it out, I saw it was a habit and tried to break it. After all, he was right. Right?