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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  The following tale relates the story of something that happened when I was teaching sixth grade in 1993.  If you must have politics, please scroll down; yesterday, I posted about the recent shootings at Columbia Mall in Maryland)

David, the director's favorite grandson, was a brilliant student.  He wasn't a troublemaker and, therefore, often had his assigned seat in the final row of desks.

David did have one bad habit, however: when he was concentrating on something, he liked to sit on his knees while in his student desk.  He had received many warnings about the precariousness of such posture, but often continued sitting on his knees.

One day, his bad habit was forever reformed.

Sitting on his knees as usual, he leaned to one side so as to see the board more clearly. Over the desk went — with David in it!

Like something out of James Thurber's short story "The Night the Bed Fell," David landed on his spilled and open three-ring binder. The rings opened up, then snapped shut. In the process, David's right ear lobe was caught and pierced.  David's screams could be heard all over the building.  I had to rush over to him and release the notebook dangling from his ear.

I was worried that David's grandmother would somehow be angry with me, but she wasn't.  Her comment: "He's been warned many times.  He got what he deserved."

He had to wear a bandaid on his ear for weeks until the ear lobe healed.  And he never sat improperly in his desk again.

So, what kind of adult did David turn out to be?  Well, when he grew up, he served as a Christian missionary in the Sudan.

14 comments:

  1. It's said that experience is the best teacher. Most children have to touch that hot stove before they believe what they were told.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When adults go out of their way to protect children from the things that children do, they concomitantly remove from a child’s grasp an opportunity to learn important lessons.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ding Dong, the Commie Pete Seeger is Dead
    Another old commie assumes room temperature.. How "sad".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Death -- even the death of a well-meaning fool -- is still no occasion for flippancy.

      A quiet and serene ALLELUIA! would be more than sufficient commentary.

      Delete
  4. 94 years old and he was out chopping wood just a few days ago.

    Hell of a quality of life.

    R.I.P. Pete.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As it says somewhere the Bible, "Evil flourisheth like the green bay tree."

      I'm sure he meant well. Most of history's greatest villains believed that of themselves.

      Delete
    2. Duck,
      This blog isn't your lawn.

      Opinions other than yours are welcome.

      Delete
  5. As for David, he is obviously an out of the box thinker...love it! LOL!

    tmw

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TMW,
      I was quite a moment. At the time, David didn't seen any humor in what had happened.

      Delete
  6. I vote for the democratic party
    They want the U.N. to be strong
    I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
    He sure gets me singing those songs
    I'll send all the money you ask for
    But don't ask me to come on along
    So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let us hope it won't be long before he is followed by the execrable Joan Baez.

      As old as I am, I still have a fond hope of one day reading the obituaries of Bill, Hillary, Harry, Nancy, Gloria Allred, John McPain and that creature from New Hampshire with the satanic eyebrows -- Patrick Leahy.

      Delete
  7. Ah yes! Here's the biblical reference to The GreenBay Tree. It's found in Psalm 37: 34-36

    34. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

    35. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

    36. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.


    Needless to say wickedness takes many and varied forms -- even that of an apparently humble, invererately foolish old folksinger.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Free Stimker ,how about a hate Shaw week?

    We loved it

    ReplyDelete
  9. Free Thinker. Sorry bout that miss spelling

    ReplyDelete

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