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Mr Crocker-Harris is an old Classics teacher at a British public school, where he’s been teaching for many years. He apparently wants the children to work hard at their lessons and it is for this reason that he has called Taplow to his office. Unfortunately, students do not like him and neither do they like his teaching methods. Taplow feels science is more interesting than studying Classics such as The Agamemnon, which he calls “muck”.
Moreover, he does not like the way it is taught to them. It has a lot of Greek words and Mr Crocker-Harris punishes them for not getting them right. Taplow feels Mr Harris might have given him lesser marks to make him do extra work. He adds that Mr Harris is “hardly human”. Thus underlining that Mr Harris has lost the student’s trust and respect.
He is a fastidious and a rule-bound person who is the only one who follows the rule of letting the headmaster announce the results on the last day of term.Taplow imitates Mr Crocker-Harris but all the same is frightened of letting Mr Harris know. The students seem to be scared to death of him. Calling Mr Crocker-Harris, the Crock, Taplow says that he is worse than a sadist as he shows no feelings.
He feels uncomfortable about people liking him. Mr Harris does not seem to respond to students who try to warm up to him. When Taplow laughed at his joke, Mr Crocker-Harris had wanted him to explain it to the rest of the class. The poor man is an unfortunate teacher.