“I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education.”
The shoots in the front garden are even higher now. Every time I come home I give them a quick look. They are my reminders that springtime is getting closer, and as the morning is only 32°, those reminders bring hope and thoughts of warmer days and gardens filled with flowers.
I went out for breakfast as I always do on Sundays. The place was unusually crowded, but we found a booth and chatted our way through eggs and bacon. While we were there, a former student came up to say hello. I didn’t recognize him until he said his name then it all flashed back. He was a kid in my office all the time, mostly for disrupting classes. I remember he once offered a suggestion during one of our discussions after he’d been tossed from class. He figured if I let him cut class, he wouldn’t be in class to disrupt it. As logical as his argument was, I had to explain that class cuts were also problems requiring consequences. He was caught either way: coming or going. We got to know each other that year, and I came to like him. One on one he was personable and funny. In class he was a horror.
It’s been a long while since I’ve seen him. He is now a man in his mid 20’s who told me he is taking classes at the local community college. I told him how proud I was for him. He beamed.
I never saw a class disrupted when I was in school. In elementary school whispering or note passing were the worst offenses, and most times the nun just called the name of the offending whisperer and the whispering stopped. She’d take the note being passed or asked that it be read aloud. That was the worst. We never had detention as a consequence, but we had sentences. Writing “I will not whisper” a 100 times might be the punishment for multiple infractions. I never got that far. I knew better. I was also really good at not getting caught.
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February 13, 2011 at 1:08 pm
While an elementary school student in the Dallas Independent School District, offenses such as talking in class or note passing were punishable with whacks from a big wooden paddle. The principal had the perpetrator bend over and hold their ankles while receiving the punishment. The paddling always occurred in the hall outside the classroom. This was in the 1950s and I hope this behavior is no longer tolerated.
Under Texas’s right to carry law, concealed hand guns are prohibited on school property. Governor Perry is proposing repeal of that part of the law. He feels that our students would be safer if they were all allowed to carry concealed hand guns in class. He figures that would deter someone who decides to shoot up the school. He thinks that the other armed students will take out the bad guy before he kills too many of the unarmed students. I guess the principal would have to ask the kid if he or she were carrying before the paddling to protect the principal. This is the forward thinking espoused by our very conservative governor.
February 13, 2011 at 1:30 pm
I shouldn´t perhaps not talk about politicians in the US since I am swedish, but that Governor must be totally insane!!!
Christer.
February 13, 2011 at 7:33 pm
The wild west mentality is alive and well in Texas.
February 13, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Not really, it’s called “thinning the herd”.
Cheers
February 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
I’m with you, Christer!
February 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Bob,
We never had corporal punishment in my memory. Detention, writing lines and much, much later Saturday school were the consequences though I have to admit a few of the students I knew would have learned better with a paddle.
That whole last paragraph scares the hell out of me.
February 13, 2011 at 11:31 pm
I am not sure that the right to carry exemption would apply to elementary, middle or high school. I think it is a reaction to the recent shootings on the campus at the University of Texas and at Virginia Tech. The theory is that when everyone is armed, the criminals will think twice about committing a felony when they don’t know if the victim will pull out a bigger weapon than they have.
I agree with you, however in Texas the right to carry law has been in effect for at least 10 years and there are not any shoot outs between the criminals and their victims that I can remember. It’s really just a gift to the gun lobby for helping to elect conservatives.
February 13, 2011 at 1:37 pm
It seems that every time I look outside the layer of frost work gets thicker 🙂 🙂 We´re not even close to spring over here 🙂
I remember us talking quite a lot in class, mostly because we had a lot of team work. But in between we had to be quiet too even though I mostly continued to talk. It did happen that I was told to leave the classroom due to too much talking 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
February 13, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Christer,
March can be a really odd month here with warmish days followed by snow. We’re not thinking spring yet either.
You would have been sent to my office for too much talking. We’d have our own discussion about it!
February 13, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Only one incidence comes to mind. A kid in the ninth grade failed a test and decided to throw pencils like darts at the teacher. The teacher was the basketball coach and came over and almost killed that kid. Well the kid was expelled; got in deep trouble stealing cars; was arrested twice and at age 17 was signed into the Marine Corps by his parents or the Judge would send him to jail. I have forgotton his name but never the face and the fight with the teacher. It was shocking. One of those experiences where later in life I wonder what happened to both teacher and student.
February 13, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Z&Me,
It’s is so true in our day that many judges gave teens the choice of jail or the army. I bet many of those guys who chose the army learned self-control and discipline.
Touching a kid in the old days wasn’t so bed; now it is an immediate firing offense. That kid would have been expelled here too.
I totally understand why it would be shocking.
February 14, 2011 at 12:57 am
The ship I was on in my first year of active duty Navy had five Texans on board. I was completely chagrined to find out that I was the only one of five that was not offered that chance by a judge to join the Navy. Aieeeee! I had LITTLE use for almost all the ~220 folks on board. There were maybe 10-20 who were upstanding citizens. That was a bad time for me. I was glad to get shore duty for the second year. The folks were more honest in Special Forces.
February 13, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Getting good at not getting caught was the key. Once mastered, the world was mine!
MT C
February 13, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Carl,
I was always smart in school so I was never under suspicion for having done a thing.
February 14, 2011 at 11:22 am
Rick,
Were you there by choice? In Massachusetts it was the army the judge offered which was, at least, a shorter amount of time.
February 14, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Oh, yes. I was there by choice not by draft. I had heard that if you volunteered for the reserves, your chance of being appointed to the Navy ROTC post was better (it turned out to be so, though I did not continue through that program to become an officer). I only served 730 days of active duty (2 years…it seemed shorter if I said it in days). I think that was short, though it seemed a VERY long time then.
February 14, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Rick,
Either way sounds really long!
February 14, 2011 at 5:44 pm
In 3rd grade a kid brought a fresh egg to school (not me! I swear!), forgot about it & left it in his desk for several days. When he found it he took it out, started horsing around w/it & dropped it.
Not only did they have to evacuate our classroom, but the one adjoining ours as well. We spent the whole afternoon standing in rows on the playground* while the janitors cleaned out the room.
* I guess that was to prevent us from having fun while class was suspended & discourage anybody else from getting similar ideas.
February 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Buzz,
How awful that smell must have been. At the thought of it my eyes are watering and I’m holding my noise.
The powers that be handled that well by keeping you in lines.
I remember my brother found a toad when we were walking to school and put it in his school bag. It got loose in class. He got into trouble and that was the last time he tried anything like that again.