The ticking sound of an American Time & Signal school clock mounted on the wall is the only thing to be heard in Montgomery’s class. The students, who all swear that clock is fast by at least 5 minutes, are fixated on pieces of paper that quickly fill from top to bottom with ink and graphite. Montgomery sits behind his desk at the head of the class, staring out the window. His expression is pensive with hints of longing. Right below the wirelessly synchronized clock, is a chalkboard.

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”

What does this mean to you?

One of the key points of the class, and cause for interest among the students, was the fact that there were no textbooks. There were no tests. “The test,” he would say, “is life. Pass or fail, your ultimate demise is inevitable.” While most might consider this as a fairly grim statement, it appealed to the student demographic and their generally undeveloped perspective on life and the world in which they lived.

Montgomery would open one class each week with a quote regarding its primary focus: death. The curriculum of his class ranged from factual to absurd. After all, death was discussed in every possible aspect. Faith, psychology, science, sociology, philosophy, and the highlight of the curriculum for most, theory, were all covered. More than anything, he really enjoyed invoking thought and conversation. The classroom was less of a place for tedious studies, and more so a place for inspired conversation among curious peers. The atmosphere was very similar to the back booth of a twenty-four hour cafe. Reasonably intelligent people passing ideas between one another across the table at two in the morning over free coffee refills and quickly vacating packs of cigarettes.

Montgomery liked looking out of the classroom window. He could stare at the sky for hours. It wasn’t that there was anything of any particular interest in and in between the clouds. He actually preferred clear skies. For him, the open sky acted as his own personal chalkboard on which he could visualize his thoughts. Everything that was currently on his mind would be scattered across the sky for him to see all at once. He could work out almost anything by looking up to the heavens. Not because he was searching for any sort of divine resolution, but because he was searching himself. That, and he was too much of a neat freak to have this thoughts written down on random scraps of paper to be scattered about his desk. So there he would sit, staring out the window while his students worked on their responses to the quote on the board.