Admission of Guilt Does NOT Equate to Permission
I'm certainly hoping that my adult children don't share this with their children-they may read it the wrong way-like permission to break the commandments despite what their parents teach them.
In second grade I figured out that other kids (it seemed like ALL of them) brought pocket change from their parents to buy their hot school lunch. They ate something different every day-in the lunch room. I got to sit out at the wood picnic tables outside my classroom and eat my Velveta American Process Cheese sandwich and sometimes there was an apple chaser. I still like cheese sandwiches and apples-I just don't like Velveta cheese.
Well most of the kids would leave their lunch money in their desk ('cause it might fall out of their pockets when they played during recess). I discovered that I could be 'late' leaving the classroom and take a nickel here, a dime there, until I had enough to buy a school lunch. Can we say d-u-m-b-o? One of four kids in the family, all attending the same elementary school and one of us shows up to pay for hot lunch and interestingly enough it was at the same time that money was disappearing from other kids's desks.
So the teacher had a clever plan. She made this pocket chart with each kids name on it which she hung on the inside of the cloak room door-in a place where it was easy for her to monitor. Hmmm.
.. This did present a bit of a challenge, but I found a way around it.
I was probably about 7 or 8 years old at the time. I knew I was very wrong for doing it. My principal, Dr. Boaden, came up with a clever plan. He invited me to come to his office during the morning and if I felt I needed to, during the afternoon recess. He would give me 2-3 cookies and a nickel to go to the lunch room to get a milk. This stopped me from stealing. At this time he also instituted letting me collect liter from around the playground, around the front of the school and even down the main road that led up to the school. He would then let me have a Popsicle. This principal was a really unique, forward-thinking, positive reinforcement kind of guy. He would stand outside at the bottom of the ramp (where the classrooms emptied to the playground) with a cart and sell Popsicles.
Later these opportunities grew into letting me work in the lunch room-in the 4th grade. This was usually reserved for 5th and 6th graders. It felt so good to be able to work and to earn my own hot lunch. And yes, I gladly spent my lunch recesses for the next three years working in the lunch room.
These efforts were not wasted. I was taught that even if I was scraping at the bottom of the barrel-I could still find a way of working for what I needed or wanted-I didn't have to settle for less. It also taught me that there is nearly always a way of working things out.
In second grade I figured out that other kids (it seemed like ALL of them) brought pocket change from their parents to buy their hot school lunch. They ate something different every day-in the lunch room. I got to sit out at the wood picnic tables outside my classroom and eat my Velveta American Process Cheese sandwich and sometimes there was an apple chaser. I still like cheese sandwiches and apples-I just don't like Velveta cheese.
Well most of the kids would leave their lunch money in their desk ('cause it might fall out of their pockets when they played during recess). I discovered that I could be 'late' leaving the classroom and take a nickel here, a dime there, until I had enough to buy a school lunch. Can we say d-u-m-b-o? One of four kids in the family, all attending the same elementary school and one of us shows up to pay for hot lunch and interestingly enough it was at the same time that money was disappearing from other kids's desks.
So the teacher had a clever plan. She made this pocket chart with each kids name on it which she hung on the inside of the cloak room door-in a place where it was easy for her to monitor. Hmmm.
.. This did present a bit of a challenge, but I found a way around it.I was probably about 7 or 8 years old at the time. I knew I was very wrong for doing it. My principal, Dr. Boaden, came up with a clever plan. He invited me to come to his office during the morning and if I felt I needed to, during the afternoon recess. He would give me 2-3 cookies and a nickel to go to the lunch room to get a milk. This stopped me from stealing. At this time he also instituted letting me collect liter from around the playground, around the front of the school and even down the main road that led up to the school. He would then let me have a Popsicle. This principal was a really unique, forward-thinking, positive reinforcement kind of guy. He would stand outside at the bottom of the ramp (where the classrooms emptied to the playground) with a cart and sell Popsicles.
Later these opportunities grew into letting me work in the lunch room-in the 4th grade. This was usually reserved for 5th and 6th graders. It felt so good to be able to work and to earn my own hot lunch. And yes, I gladly spent my lunch recesses for the next three years working in the lunch room.
These efforts were not wasted. I was taught that even if I was scraping at the bottom of the barrel-I could still find a way of working for what I needed or wanted-I didn't have to settle for less. It also taught me that there is nearly always a way of working things out.
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