@Putnam & Flying Dice
Um.. Yeah. I haven't quite seen the angle of this sitation you brought up. I thought she didn't heard what I was mumbling to myself, but apparently she did. Guess this was really a dick move. Not something worth ragequitting class over, in my opinion, but I really have an apology to make nevertheless.
I'm just not used to people actually paing attention t what I do and speak. And the class was boring to the extreme, people telling basically the same overused lines from the textbook on the overused topic from the same textbook, over and over, not even trying to bring up some new stuff - an I know these people were perfectly capable of it, they just decided not to. This was getting on my nerve as well.
I can't remember where the statistics were taken from, but in some survey of people's fears showed that the unfathomable experience of death and nonexistence, that has plagued humanity for as long she had existed with it's uncertainty, actually only came in second place of what people feared the most... Behind the fear of "talking in front of other people". It is something about the worry of being judged that makes public speech such a sensitive point for so many (which is also why it is so important to practice it in school!), and speaking in a context where the
point is to be judged and graded probably exaggerates that effect and makes people very self conscious. It is extra easy to feel targeted in such situations.
As for the strength of her reaction... Well, we don't know what other heap of negative coincidences were weighing down on her already. Remember that your words could have been only a straw to her already heavy load, and though it might appear like that straw broke her camel's back the other hay bales that where already on it would also be part of the reason for the breakage.