A few days ago we looked at a vignette from the first grade experience. Today is the tale of the coloring book. Not just any coloring book, but The Coloring Book. It was a huge, fat, glorious set of pages just begging to be crayoned. He had received the book on his sixth birthday, and he had still many, many wonderful pages to be artistically completed. (Yeah, I know. Stifled his creativity before it had a chance to grow. And other baloney.)
Anyway, it was a beautiful late summer day and school had been in session perhaps two weeks when The Boy decided to take the wonderful treasure to school. Now, those arriving at school before Teacher came out to gather the children around the flagpole to say the Pledge of Allegiance had to remain on the sidewalk or on the grassy area outside the schoolground itself.
The school was a "primary school" and housed first and second grade only. There was no public kindergarten in those times and in that place. Good heavens, how ever did the kids get an education?
So anyway, the second graders were "kings of the hill," so to speak and the firsters trembled in their very presence. At least some of them did, and the Boy was such an one. You know what happened. The "big kids" started to tease the child with his treasure. "Oh, look, the Baby brought his coworring book," and so on. So the child, crushed and intimidated, threw the book into the grass and PROCEEDED TO SIT ON IT! Dorks do have a way about them, and this elicited even more teasing in the vein of "BWAK, Bwak, buk, buk, buk-- look, the Chicken is trying to hatch his book."
Did I mention that school was not high on the list of the boy's pleasures?
4 comments:
Awwww- poor kid. Other kids can be so mean.
Ah, sweet childhood memories. Almost makes you want to go back and experience it all again.
I think you may have mentioned once or twice that school was not your favorite thing : ) That, unfortunately, was true for many who were in the system "way back when."
One has to wonder what kids were doing standing on the sidewalk unsupervised? Did this mean that no one had responsibility for what went on there? (Well, apparently so.)
All of those years I taught I had no idea it might be acceptable to hang out in the coffee room and let students who were within hearing distance torment each other. What was wrong with the principals for whom I worked, having me stand outside in the morning to make sure students arrived safely?
Shelly, I pull this story out and rehash it when I need to garner sympathy. For a slight over seven decades old? Really? But you are right, kids can be cruel.
Jim, of course it makes me want to go back and relive it. Not.
Vee, have I really pointed that out repeatedly? I guess those principals saw things exactly as I did, for there were always teachers assigned to that duty. Not that it was their favorite part of the day.
As to the waiting on the sidewalk, one must assume that the kids were the responsibility of their parents until such time as they set foot on the school grounds. Its a legal issue that will never be uniformly and universally resolved.
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