The poem often starts with "Nothing" or "Everything". This is because from the teacher's perspective, the student missed everything in the class, and the ideas in class was important.

However, when the teacher tried to think in the student's perspective, or in terms of the grade. The class for which the student missed wasn't too significant at all.

There were also times when the teacher gave out quizzes during class, and the student missed the quiz. For this the poet felt so annoying about.