We were in a tight. We had very
little money. I had to pay back some of the money I had already
received at Fayetteville, And I would not get a check at Hannibal
for a while yet. I had to ask the superintendent for an advance on
my first check. A new administrator piped up. “Well, it looks to me
like, if you get an advance, you will just be short the next month
too.” I didn't say anything, He didn't know us, so there was no
need to try to explain to him that we weren't like that. The boss was
wiser, though, and he knew more about life, and people. He gave me
the advance. I found a Saturday job with Bleigh Construction, and
they paid well, not like the $1.25 an hour construction jobs in Fayetteville. When we got my first check from Bleigh, $75 for one
day's work, compared to $30 per week take home for a summer job in
Fayetteville, we thought we were rich!
When I started teaching in
Hannibal, I soon got acquainted with two young men, just beginning
their teaching careers. One asked me one day, “Do you have a
problem with girl students coming on to you?” “No,” I said, “I
never have.” He told me that had been a real problem for him in
student teaching. He said, “I guess it's because you are older.”
Well, I was bouncing near thirty, but I used to be young, and that
wasn't a problem then either. He kinda smiled, looked at me sorta
sympathetic like, and the conversation ended.
A few days after school started, I
was talking to him outside his classroom door during class change. A
pretty girl walked out. He swatted her on her backside with his meter
stick, she looked at him, and he winked. “My friend,” I said, “I
think I can tell you what your problem is.” He had to leave
teaching a couple of years later. In fact, because of statements made
by that same girl.
My other young teacher friend was
newly married, very excited about teaching. By semester, his
excitement was gone. Some students said, he now passed out the
assignment, then lay his head down on the desk the rest of the
period. After awhile, he was struck with a strange ailment. He would
have to stay home for long periods of time, then on returning, the
ailment seemed to return. Teaching is not for everyone.
I was teaching Introductory
Physical Science, a new Lab-based science course. I taught that
course for six years, six times a day. So, even if it was lab based,
it was hard to stay on track if we didn't have a little fun along the
way. I always started in the fall being pretty hard core, until I had
established who the Big Dog was, then I gradually slacked off that
and we had fun. If I had started out that way, they would have taken
over. Anyway, I knew pretty quick which kids could take a little joke
now and then, and they soon learned that if I pulled a little prank
on them, I was fair game. Give and take. Kept things more fun for
everyone.
I had one student who was a really
good kid, very smart, and he and I regularly swapped barbs, put
downs, and jokes. One day the principal caught him with cigarettes at
school, and he was expelled for three days. We had a lab experiment
where they hooked up a cigarette to a tube, pulled air through it,
then caught the residue on the other end on a cloth, to show them
what went into their lungs when smoking. So I always had a good
supply of cigarettes on hand. The day this particular student came
back from his suspension, We were busy with an experiment. I caught
him looking the other way, and I slipped a cigarette under his book.
Later, as I came around looking at his work, I just happened to lift
his book. He saw the cigarette, and he grew pale. I explained I
sure hated to send him back to the principal so quick, but he MUST
quit bringing them to school. For his own good. When He left the
room, head down, to make that long walk down to the principal's
office, I sent another student down there the short way, double time,
to head him off at the principal's door, and bring him back. He was
laughing when he came back, very relieved, and he took it well. Then,
he started working on a plan to get me back, and I'm sure he did.
I had a little bucket with 6
pieces of paper in it. When someone messed up bad, they had to “Go
fish” out of the bucket. Four pieces of paper had some creative
penalty they had to do, the fifth said “Go free,” and the sixth
was the one everyone longed for. If they drew that one, I had to get
on my knees, hold their hand, and beg their forgiveness for picking
on them. I have no pride.
I once had a little book that I
kept in my desk, and kept a month's supply of good jokes in it. They
helped keep kids from dozing off. Once, a substitute teacher found my
little book, and spent the day reading all my jokes to all my
classes.
I dearly loved ninth and tenth
grade students. That's really about where my maturity level stopped, anyway, and never went past that. They were mature enough to be real, but not too
sophisticated to laugh at my jokes if they were funny. When I taught
twelfth graders, and told a good joke, they never laughed, I was
totally greeted by silence. But when they left class, they went out
telling it to everyone. Ninth and Tenth graders never treated me that
way, and we had fun.
Barbara started substitute
teaching, and when they found out she could handle about any
situation well, with THE LOOK, she was kept busy. Our financial
problems were over.
The Hannibal School District had
just bought a new computer that year, 1973. Big news. The thing took
up a room. Once they got it and had it set up, they found out there
was nobody in the county who could run the thing. Cost around
$50,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment