I was too scared around that teacher for the rest of my young life to think very well in her presence. But I took the message with me and gradually examined and valued it. I don't recommend humiliating people into thinking for themselves as she had. She certainly did not create a Thinking Environment for us. Had she affirmed our intelligence first and spoken about the joy of thinking for ourselves, had she not fanned our fear of her, we would all have learned even more powerfully what it meant to do our thinking. And we might have been able to think well around her too. 20 But at least she introduced the concept into my academic life. Question: What does the writer think of the maths teacher?