Juniors and sophomores of Gallatin High School, have you noticed increased passive aggressiveness in your combo classes? Have you witnessed the beginning stages of a civil war right in front of your eyes? Well, that is exactly the case we are trying to crack. The combo teachers of Gallatin High School are on a rampage to start a turf war of History v.s. Language.

To truly understand where this dispute came from, we went undercover to interview Rachel Tilton and Quentin Miller, two combo teachers at Gallatin High School and pried out the information to see where this battle began. Many are going to say this was a ‘biased’ interview as there was interaction between the teachers during the interview and the questions may or may not have been provoking a passive-aggressive response. However what we have to see is that these quotes are indisputable, and provide an incredibly accurate summary of teaching life spent glued to the hips of another.

To start off strong, we asked Miller his opinions on combo teaching, a type of teaching within GHS where a language and history teacher are in the same classroom and a combo period stretches for two normal class periods. The response? Just what we suspected. He says, “One might think that being able to work with another professional is a good thing, however, working with an individual by the name of Rachel Tilton has thrown some unexpected curve balls at me.” Miller mentioned that there is a responsibility put on him that he deems overbearing—in fact, there have been two instances where Miller had to water Tilton’s plants while she was away. Miller exclaims, “I can’t just think about chlorophyll and water volumes,” something Tilton expects him to know. This could very well impact Miller’s teaching ability, starting the quarrel of responsibilities in the classroom.

Tilton had a lot to say about this. She was aware of what Miller had said in his interview, but most likely this did not affect her response in any way. Tilton retaliates on the plant debate with, “He probably just feels guilty. I have told him in the past I wish he would help me with the plants a little bit, but he doesn’t. He never will.” The line between helping a colleague and taking advantage of them is a fine one, but there seems to be a difference between how History teachers and English teachers view these problems.

Relationships between teachers and students are important in order to engage active learners and give the best possible environment for schooling. But when two teachers in the same classroom have different ideas of what that relationship should look like, it all goes downhill. Miller’s expectations in classrooms include, “You’re in class on time, you turn your assignments in, you’re listening during class, you’re not talking about skiing during class, and you don’t use Gen Z terminology with me.” Very reasonable boundaries coming from a teacher, but let’s focus on why Gen Z terminology is being brought up.

Tilton (the younger teacher, by 9 years, according to her), has said in interview, “I think he needs to deal with it.” Talking about the use of these terms in school she continues, “It’s not even Gen Z terminology, it’s my terminology. He needs to learn these terms.” Within a teacher-to-teacher relationship, it is safe to say there needs to be a form of communication. Tilton expresses her hardship of communicating with Miller by saying “He uses really, really hard vocab all the time, some of it I don’t even know what he’s talking about.” English teachers are known for their extensive vocabulary, but is that a realistic standard for the “normal” people surrounding them? There has been a situation reported where Tilton’s “Kids will go up to her and say ‘Isn’t that bussing?’ and she will be like ‘No cap, for real,’” according to Miller. The more we look into this classroom community, the more problems seem to arise. From watering plants to understanding what (in Tilton's words) “Hundo P” means, the dynamic between History teachers and English ones is a precarious relation.

When asking about Tilton’s and Miller’s opinions on each other, there was some tension in the air. Although Tilton was in the room during Miller’s interview, it was quite clear that her presence had no effect on his responses. After all, better told to you directly than behind your back, right? For example, “It’s better to have some emotions than none at all.” But when Miller faced accusations on how English teachers may be perceived as more dramatic, he refuted it with, “I disagree vehemently, and I’m not trying to grandstand, but I am NOT DRAMATIC and if you don’t put that in all caps I will hit you with some slander.” Hundo P not dramatic.

Tilton seemed to really get things off her chest when talking about Miller. “[English teachers] use big terminology, they use all these English-y things, they think they’re high and mighty with their vocab and their weird perfectly structured sentences. It’s just not necessary.” Some may think this is domineering as the example students look up to are these weirdly structured sentences. Is this the perspective English teachers are raising? Depending on Google and the Oxford dictionary to understand this language we all thought we were proficient in?

This battle does not end with Miller and Tilton. In fact, almost every combo class in Gallatin High School has experienced some form of petulance between their teachers and we want to make a stand. Let's lay down our literary swords and historic weapons, set aside our differences, and bring harmony to the battle between English and history. In the great words of Rachel Tilton, “Combo is an interesting thing. The history portion is always more significant, but the English teachers are there for moral support.”