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We've all learned difficult lessons.

At school, at work, at play, at life.

The Jazz have that in common with the rest of us.

They're learning hard lessons on the hardwood in a hard season.

Gordon Hayward said as much the other night, after the Jazz beat Houston in an overtime game he wasn't sure his team would have won just a few weeks ago. It's called rough-and-rugged progress.

An analogy …

When I was a kid, in elementary school, there was a teacher everybody was afraid of. Mrs. Offlerbach was her name and edgy discipline was her game. She was the strictest, scariest, toughest, meanest fifth-grade teacher at the school, in the country, in the world. When you looked at her angry, dark eyes, you were never sure whether you saw love or hate. With her, it was a thin, thin line. We called her Mrs. Off-Her-Block, mainly because she was.

She was wrinkly and harsh, grouchy and unforgiving. Think Clint Eastwood in a baggy floral-patterned smock and clunky pumps.

She had no soul.

Pity the fool who answered a question in class wrong. Say a prayer for the poor kid who didn't complete his homework. And, if anybody mouthed off to her — please lord, no — may he rest in peace. I swear, she snarled once at Julie Bingham because she got up to use the restroom without prior permission. Mrs. Offlerbach's head rotated atop her shoulders like some kind of devil woman as she scolded little Julie right before Julie turned green and puked all over the wall.

I'll never forget it.

It was a rough educational environment. Everybody lost a hundred close battles in arithmetic that year, everybody died a thousand deaths in science, everybody panicked in English.

But everybody also learned … a lot.

This is the season of Mrs. Offlerbach for the Jazz.

We've already talked about the injury and adversity they've faced. But that's just the start of the lessons being taught here. The Jazz are learning more. They are learning not to give up, not to shrink away when they suffer through a lousy quarter. They are learning, more than anything else, how to keep games competitive and close, by controlling pace and defending fiercely, right down to the last nub.

Not often have those games been blowouts. A majority of them have been well within reach in the fourth quarter. Twenty-four of them have ended either in overtime or within a five-point margin, for or against.

Most of those have been against.

The Jazz lost to the Pistons by five, the Cavs by four, the Heat by one, the Warriors by three, the Thunder by four, the Thunder in overtime, the Clippers by five, the Rockets by two, the Kings by two, the Hornets in two overtimes, the Knicks in overtime, the Pistons by three, the Pelicans by four, and the Blazers by four.

They beat the Hawks by one, the Raptors by four, the Pacers in overtime, the Sixers by four, the Grizzlies in overtime, the Bulls in overtime, the Nuggets by four, the Bucks by three, the Mavs in overtime, and the Rockets in overtime.

That makes them 10-14 in those kinds of games. In the greater-margin games, they are 18-14.

Mrs. Offlerbach has not been kind to the Jazz … because the Jazz haven't answered enough of the classroom questions correctly, they haven't always turned in their homework, they have, on occasion, mouthed off a bit, and a couple of times, they went all Julie on the leathery old bird.

A turnover here, a poorly executed play there, a couple of missed defensive assignments and a few shanked shots mixed in have been enough to swing the ruler onto their knuckles in the clutch, when the difference between winning and losing was as thin as the lens in Off-Her-Block's granny glasses.

She used to indicate to us, without really uttering the words, that there was methodology to her madness, proper usefulness in her being mad all the time. I paid attention and learned, although, I have to admit, there were times, as a 10-year-old, when I wanted to punch the old bag in the mouth and laugh at her pain.

She was the best teacher I ever had. She gave her students no choice but to pry open their minds and learn.

So, Mrs. Offlerbach is giving the Jazz the education they must endure and embrace if they want to become a real contender. They must learn, quickly, what they're doing wrong and make it right. They must pay attention and pay the price. It seems as though they are.

If they continue on that path, when they are all grown up and contending, poised and confident and accomplished, they'll look back at this season with an ache and a wince, and be grateful for the harsh and useful lessons the buzzard-tough old schoolmarm taught them.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.