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Taplow has very more bitter feelings about his teacher Crocker-Harris. He is a student in the lower fifth grade and feels that he would specialise next term if he got his remove, of which he is uncertain as Mr Crocker-Harris doesn’t tell the students the results like the other teachers. As a rule, the class results should only be announced by the headmaster on the last day of term but Taplow feels that none other than Mr Crocker-Harris waits to inform students of their result. He is not interested in the Classical literature that is taught by Mr Crocker-Harris.
He 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. The Agamemnon had a lot of Greek words and Mr Crocker-Harris punished them for not getting them right.
Taplow feels more bitter as he had been given extra work to do for missing a day of school the previous week when he was ill. It was the last day of school and he wished to play golf instead. It was just on the previous day that Mr Crocker- Harris had told Taplow that he had got what he deserved. Taplow feels that Mr Harris might have given him lesser marks to make him do extra work. He adds that Mr Harris is “hardly human”. He also imitates his teacher.
When Frank suggests that Taplow could go and play golf, Taplow is shocked as nobody takes that kind of liberty with Mr Crocker-Harris. Taplow calls Mr Crocker-Harris, “the Crock”, and says that he is worse than a sadist. If he were a sadist, he wouldn’t be as frightening because he would then show he had some feelings. His inside, feels Taplow, is like a “shrivelled nut” and he seems to hate people who like him.
However, Taplow admits that despite everything Mr Crocker-Harris does, he still likes him. Although, he says that Mr Crocker-Harris feels uncomfortable about people liking him. He says once in class Mr Crocker-Harris made one of his classical jokes, and nobody laughed because nobody understood it. However Taplow knew that it was meant to be funny, so he laughed. Mr Crocker-Harris said that he was pleased with Taplow’s knowledge of Latin and wanted him to explain the joke to the rest of the class.