TALES FROM SCHOOL

I was teaching in Rollo Bay Consolidated School and our children were students in the school as well. It had its advantages when this happened, but it also had disadvantages as well. ‘

One evening I had a staff meeting, and it was late when I arrived home from school. When I opened the door, the phone was ringing. I answered the call, only to be told by a mother of a student that she wanted her daughter’s mitten returned immediately. Apparently Kevin and her daughter were teasing each other at recess. Kevin took one of the girl’s mittens and buried it in the deep snow. The girl went home with one bare hand and her mother was furious. She demanded that I return the mitten that very evening, as there was a storm coming.

I was not very happy with Kevin, as we returned to the school to look for the valuable piece of clothing. It was dark, so we used a flashlight and searched in the back yard of the school. I was quite nervous of the surroundings, and a bit leery as to whom might pounce on us for trespassing after school hours. Finally Kevin found the lost possession and we returned home. The girl received her lost mitten the next morning. It was making a mountain out of mole hill, but Kevin learned a valuable lesson and did not try to do that again.

Another incident occurred when Terry was in grade seven and I was teaching grade two. He was often talkative in class, and his teacher threatened to send him down to the grade two class for the afternoon. He really thought that she did not mean it. Later Terry started to talk again, so she marched him down to my door. By now Terry was desperately pleading for forgiveness, promising his teacher that he would reform. It worked, because she gave in and let him return to class. It was a close call for Terry, both from his teacher and me as well. It would have been a disaster if his peers saw him sitting in the grade two classroom.

I’m not quite sure what the detention would be if Terry’s teacher had not mellowed and given in to his woes. It certainly was a lesson for him, and curtailed his talking. He knew that the teacher would not be so generous

the next time.

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