you're adults now, you're in college / no cell phones
A teacher post.
A bottle of water on your desk, a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, and you are asked in front of everyone what is really in it. You say water. She looks at you as if the evidence has already been seen. The bell rings and you stand up, because that is what bells are for. "Sit down, I haven't dismissed you yet." Nobody has ever seen her check a watch, and she always knows the time. She announces that this is one of the easier subjects in the school. By Friday you hold three assessment tasks, all due next week, and a fresh appreciation of the word "easier". You make one small mistake at the board, and it is discussed for the rest of the lesson. The class learns your name, your handwriting and the exact shape of your error. **Why it caught on:** the picture shows an older woman in tinted glasses and a pearl necklace, cut out against a bright multicoloured starburst, her mouth mid-reprimand. Her name and the original photo's source are not known, but the format spread through Russian-language meme communities and then to English-language sites, where the stern-teacher caption pairs a setup with a cruelly unfair punchline. It stuck because everyone has been on the receiving end of a teacher whose rules applied to everyone except her.