Carol's claim that she is stupid makes John pause. ("Pause, one of the few stage directions in the play, occurs ten times on this page) He asks Carol to sit, and he tells her that he can empathize, having been brought up to feel stupid himself. He speaks of his alienation from the rest of the world: "The real people. Who were they? They were the people other than myself. The good people. The capable people. The people who could do the things, I could not do: learn, study, retain. " Through his own frustration with his incapacity to learn John took this as a description of himself: it is not that he simply couldn't understand at any given moment, but that he was someone who could not understand. John takes the blame for Carol's lack of understanding, saying he had his house and other matters on his mind.
Carol is incredulous at John's confession, and he tells her that she can improve herself as he has. John says that he is being personal with her, as he wished someone had sat him down personally and helped him when he was younger. She asks, "Why would you want to be personal with me?", and just as he answers, "We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screen we create," the phone rings again. It is his wife Grace again (although he doesn't identify her except by saying "I love you") calling about the house. John promises to be right down but hangs up, somewhat flustered at her insistence.
The new house, Carol realizes aloud, is because of John's promotion. She asks why he remains with her when he should go; he answers, "Because I like you," because he feels that they are similar. She tells him he said "everyone has problems" (he did not, at least not yet in the play) and asks what his are. He again responds with an attempt to level the field between them, breaking down the "Artificial Stricture" of the teacher-student relationship. He says he has problems with teaching—he found the hierarchy artificial and resented positions of authority because he knew he was bound to fail. He has, however, lifted himself up from this by realizing that he thought of himself as a failure and deciding to change that "by succeeding now and again."
Tests, he says, are nonsense. As an example, he talks of the Tenure Committee, which he says is populated by individuals he "wouldn't employ to wax my car." Carol identifies that he has nonetheless been granted tenure, but John clarifies that they've announced it but haven't officially signed yet. He worries that at any moment they will find him unworthy—as he himself feels he is unworthy of his job, his home, his wife, his family, etc.—and his house will not go through.
Carol interrupts to ask about her grade. John becomes very terse, the phone rings, and he offers a frustrated deal: Carol stays, they begin the class over, and she receives an automatic A. "Your grade for the whole term is an 'A.' If you will come back and meet with me. A few more times." He tells her not to worry about the paper; he just wants to get her interested and answer her questions. Carol protests—she cannot believe that it's possible. She is worried about the rules, but John placates her, telling her that they won't tell anyone, keeping it between the two of them.
Despite claiming to shrug off the teacher-student hierarchy, John continues to be pedantic and somewhat condescending. He insults the Tenure Committee, seemingly only because they hold positions of authority important to his security. He continues to interrupt and override Carol. He uses words, which Carol does not understand. John seems to be comfortable saying one thing yet doing another, at least when it comes to modifying his own overbearing behavior.
John has just begun to explain a particular theory of education when Carol interrupts to ask about her grade. Throughout this section, she has let John explain his rise from low self-esteem without interruption, but when he begins to reenter explanations of academia, however, she interrupts, concerned not with learning but with grades. In Act two, Carol ignores this previous concern with grades and simply passing the class. John's reaction to her prodding about grades may be a place to look for her motivation; he brushes off her questioning in the first section and here gives in easily, offering her an A. While she is incredulous here, later Carol will take advantage of John's benevolence.
This section includes some foreshadowing; many things John says and does here will come back to haunt him later in the play. John mentions being personal because he likes Carol. They talk of breaking the rules when he agrees to begin the class over, and she cannot understand. He sets up the standard that she later throws back at him, claiming that, "finally, you have to look at how you act," rather than what you think or what you say. Most importantly, Carol claims John has said something he has not said ("everyone has problems"). This is the only instance of outright fabrication in the play, but it foreshadows Carol's tendency to spin the truth to her own best uses.