Billy, a scrawny, but energetic second grader, sat nearest to the front entrance of our middle-sized classroom. “Shhh!” “Here she comes!” He shouted, “Hurry up everybody!” “Run and jump in your seats!” “I hear those high-heels moving closer.” During the late 1960s, most teachers enforced strict student discipline. My second-grade teacher, Ms. Ellen Crump, for example, was needle thin and a sharp conservative dresser. She strutted a tall black hairdo (with grey roots) against her brown skin. On top of that, her personal character was connected to a no-nonsense steel rod, which meant if all her 25 pupils were not quiet, knees forward and sitting-up straight, when she marched into our classroom, that sturdy rod in her disciplinary character, transformed her long skinny hand into a thick 12-inch ruler. Instructors, I’m dead serious, when I say this:
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Have you ever had a teacher who acted the same way as Ms. Crump? Wait, before you answer, let me drop these buzz words: “I cannot remember her being absent–not one single day. So, I didn’t know what having a substitute teacher meant.” Do you remember that old-school education? Can you recall those strict days of paddles, switches, and rulers? You might ask, what could a whack from a 12-inch ruler teach a second grader? In those hardcore days, regardless of the student’s grade level, many students who were just like me, learned discipline through the sting of pain. I remembered when I graduated from the second grade, and I entered the third grade. A female student used vulgar language in our classroom, and my third-grade teacher broke-off a hunk of soap to wash out the little girl’s mouth. My heart was horrified as my classmates and I watched another student force down a chunk of soap. The devastating scene happened as my teacher and my classmate walked near the sink. The teacher stood next to her student. Then she demanded that the third-grader swallow a wedge of real
Have you ever had a teacher who acted the same way as Ms. Crump? Wait, before you answer, let me drop these buzz words: “I cannot remember her being absent–not one single day. So, I didn’t know what having a substitute teacher meant.” Do you remember that old-school education? Can you recall those strict days of paddles, switches, and rulers? You might ask, what could a whack from a 12-inch ruler teach a second grader? In those hardcore days, regardless of the student’s grade level, many students who were just like me, learned discipline through the sting of pain. I remembered when I graduated from the second grade, and I entered the third grade. A female student used vulgar language in our classroom, and my third-grade teacher broke-off a hunk of soap to wash out the little girl’s mouth. My heart was horrified as my classmates and I watched another student force down a chunk of soap. The devastating scene happened as my teacher and my classmate walked near the sink. The teacher stood next to her student. Then she demanded that the third-grader swallow a wedge of real