Caleb Smith ’13

My freshman science teacher, Mr. Raeke, had a sense of humor that was as unstoppable as plate tectonics or mitosis. He considered himself to be the funniest teacher. April Fool’s Day that year was going to be an April Fool’s Day to remember. The best way to prank Mr. Raeke would be to play on his position as funniest teacher in the school. I used Microsoft Publisher to create a fake awards certificate for Tech’s “funniest teacher.” My plan was to pretend that the student council had decided to give awards. When April 1st rolled around, I didn’t want to embarrass Mr. Raeke. He had figured that the award was a fake all along. Towards the end of class, he made a great hullaballoo about how I was to present him the award. So I presented it. When I finally said “April Fools,” the main reaction from my fellow students was surprise and anger– at me. They thought it was mean of me to play the joke on Mr. Raeke. From what I understand, when he was explaining to next year’s students how he was the funniest teacher, he used the certificate as ‘official evidence!’