Mr. Racine quotes from My So-Called Life

So why are you here? You the new substitute?

Why am I here? Yeah, good question. I'm the new substitute, yes. I'm here quite simply to get paid. Assuming all of you can read and write, I don't perceive any emergency situation. That's all. Continue wasting your lives. [he pulls a folded newspaper out of his knapsack]

Sharon

So, um...are we like, dismissed?

Do you want to be dismissed?

Sharon

No, you just said that...you just said that was all you had to say, so...

I will be here for the next forty-seven minutes. Whether you will also be here for that time is, to be candid, your decision.

Jordan

What's the catch?

No catch. If you don't want to be here, go. I'm not gonna stop you. [Jordan immediately climbs out of his desk and heads for the door] Well, you know, there is just, you know, one catch. We will be discussing you in your absence, but you know, if you don't mind that...

Jordan

Yeah, right.

Oh, it's no joke. I have no lesson planned. Trashing you in your absence will help, uh, pass the time. Right? It could, uh, possibly be educational as well.

Angela

So what are we supposed to do?

Ah, I've known you all of five minutes and you want me to tell you what you're supposed to do? Fine. Follow your hearts and veer away from heroin.

Angela

[laughs] No, I meant in the next forty-seven minutes.

I know what you meant, that was sarcasm.

Write it down. Whatever you feel like saying write it down instead. What you never told anyone. What you never even told yourself. And don't fear exposure. No one is to put his or her name down. This will be completely anonymous.

Rayanne

[whispering to Angela] Just how I like sex.

Patty

My husband and I read the stuff that the kids wrote --

Hope it didn't give him a heart attack. He seemed a bit fragile.

Patty

Actually, it isn't my husband who had the problem.

Patty

I just think...there's this one piece in particular that I just don't feel comfortable printing.

Oh! You're afraid that Angela wrote it.

Patty

This has nothing to do with whether Angela wrote it.

So, this is just censorship for censorship's sake?

Patty

What?

Hand them over. I'll type them myself, and I'll have them Xeroxed.

Patty

These are children! We are adults! This is not censorship! This is guiding adolescents who need...guidance!

That is a very reasonable opinion, and very clearly stated. Unfortunately, it's total manure.

Patty

Excuse me?

It's horse manure. I sense you're angry. Are you angry?

Patty

Yes!

Yes! I sensed that! [laughs]

Patty

Why is it manure?

Good question. It is manure because this journal should be about giving these students a voice, not about having their thoughts edited. If these kids aren't afraid to put their hearts on the page, why should we be afraid of them?

Patty

You should really teach full-time.

We have a difference of opinion. Fine. But do you think you should be in the position of deciding because you run a printing press and I don't?

Patty

Do you expect me to answer that question?

Yes.

Patty

[pause] No, I don't.

Patty

So. Did Angela write it?

Angela

I heard you left your family -- abandoned them.

I see.

Angela

So are you saying you didn't? I mean, what's the truth?

Well, there are a couple of truths. One truth is I left my family. The other truth is my wife is far better off without me. Yes. I got out. I escaped. I broke out of a prison of my own making, and many, many people want to punish me for that -- maybe even you.

Angela

I'm trying to --

'To' what? To understand? Look, my struggle for freedom is mine. Get your own. Get out before it's too late, Amanda.

Angela

'Get out'? Get out of what?

That mind-control factory -- that warehouse they store you in because they don't know what else to do with you.

Angela

You're telling me to drop out of high school?

Good question. Yes. Run for your life. Save your life. Let the walls of your gingerbread house come crashing down. Or not.

Angela

It's Angela. And I have to say I don't think leaving high school is the answer. I don't think leaving anything is. The thing is...is I kind of admired you.