> My big problem with English teachers was they were
extremely opinionated.
Mine were very passionate and recognized my love of language and allowed me to read beyond the syllabus. My teacher in my sophomore year in high school turned me on to Faulkner and the later works of Melville, and then followed me as I read Coover and Pynchon. In my history class, I was allowed to pen a term paper on the history of postmodern fiction in post-WWII American literature entitled (with all the possible pretension of a teenage litterateur) "Zeus Lands in Brooklyn." Guess it all depends on the teacher.
Brian