I had kind of a math phobia in elementary and high school.. The whole thing was rooted in the fact that my 5th grade math teacher was an evil witch about 10 years overdue for retirement, but that's neither here nor there. The important thing is that, after that experience, math classes caused me to be anxious.
Unfortunately, I *was* good at it so there was always a disconnect between what I felt like I could do, and that which placement tests indicated I could do. I always ended up being placed higher than I felt capable of accomplishing...not a great situation. Happened several times.
ANYWAY...rambling...I was put in pre-calculus during my senior year of high school. Early in the year, about 80% of the class was just epic failing everything. Everybody was totally lost.. The teacher had pretty much had all she could take of us being morons, so she flipped out one day and started yelling at us. Thinking back, she was looking at pretty much everybody in the room at various points, including me.. Not JUST me, though I felt like it at times.
At one point, she said "If you can't can't figure out what I'm talking about..." -- happens to look directly at me -- "...then you need to go down to the counselor's office and drop this class!"
I said "I tried, but she won't let me."
I didn't say it in a mean way...I was just responding. Her tirade was, of course, very much rhetorical but I don't really "do" rhetorical, so she was taken aback.
She stopped yelling after that. When class was finished, she held me over for just a minute and apologized, saying she wasn't talking to *me, per se,* but to everyone, and that she was just frustrated. I reiterated that I really had tried to drop, but they wouldn't let me, and that I was stuck and would just have to do the best I could.
In hindsight, after reading some of the stories here...it was pretty clearly an Aspie moment. lol