No one saw the superhero in mild-mannered Clark Kent.
Jim O'Connor keeps his students fooled too.
In his algebra and calculus classes at St. Francis High School, he is stern — no excuses, no coddling. "If you look at the clock," said senior Michael Tinglof, who had O'Connor in his freshman year, "you're on his bad list for the rest of the class."
The 70-year-old teacher's look also is all business: spine straight, close-cropped silver hair. When he cracks a joke, he's so deadpan that the boys often miss it, senior Pat McGoldrick said.
"Like in our class, he'll put a problem up on the board and then someone will say, 'Oh, can you do it this way?' And then he'll respond, 'Oh yeah, I'll just do this and I'll just change that and I'll do all this extra work and I'll get the same answer. It's totally worth it.' "
Until they get accustomed, Pat said, "everybody thinks he's being really mean."
For the record, O'Connor embraces the reputation. "You want to teach a class with 30 boys,爱上我了吗
