Detention certainly isn’t a place one typically likes to be. You can sense the discomposure in the room as soon as you open the door to Mr. Nelson’s classroom. It’s everywhere– from the irritated jostle of one poor victim’s leg against their vinyl desk, to the wary eyes of others as they gaze upon their proctor, Mr. Himwich. He’s the ideal caricature of a wise old man with his snow-white beard. If you look closely enough, however, you can sense he’s full of mischief. There’s a twinkle in his eyes, the kind that tells you that something is certainly brewing in his mind.
Mr. Himwich thinks that students shouldn’t be made to wither away in a room when they could be doing more useful things, like, let’s just imagine for a second, learning Latin. He has a faraway look in his eyes as he gazes upon his classroom of criminals (what crimes did they commit, you ask? 3rd degree parking violations, or worse, having the nerve to skip an assembly.)
You see, he views his detention Latin class as a form of rebellion against the established bureaucracy that has come to prioritize penalties over learning. He hopes that people will love learning this classical language so much that detention will begin to feel like a reward rather than a punishment…