When I was in First Grade in a small Oklahoma country grade school, I was spanked with a paddle for disobedience. It was the only time I was ever spanked in school...not that the corporal punishment rules changed, I just straightened up my act.
However, I have never forgiven my teacher or my parents (if you get punished at school, you also get punished at home) for those spankings. I did not deserve them.
It was winter. It was cold. But we are prairie people, so recess was still outside.
I found a frozen bird by the swingset. Ok, sure, he was dead. It was a dead bird. However, I had only just turned six years old and had a child-sized heart bigger than that state to the south. I had found a frozen bird. I was told not touch it, pick it up, mess with it...that it was dead and probably had bugs. I was scooted away.
But don't you understand? That bird was frozen and needed to be kept warm.
So, I went to the bathroom and got some paper towels. I snuck back to the bird, wrapped it up, put it in my pocket, then in my bookbag hanging in the coat closet. I don't know who told. I suspect Jamie. (Or maybe I had been seen and Mrs. Vogel wanted to see just how far it would play out.)
I got a good talking-to about minding your teachers. And then I was spanked.
I was only trying to save a wounded, frozen bird.
Not that I was trying to save Him. (Who knows? Maybe I was.) I just might should have listened a little more carefully when I was told something was dead.
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3 comments:
Seems like that might have been an awesome opportunity for the teacher to get a shovel and take care of the bird herself or even to have organized a class project to honor the end of tweety's life. Definitely not a spanking offense.
lessons...lessons come to us as many times as we need to learn them. . . everyone's got a different timeline.
this is a great piece of writing.
A dead bird is not responsible for its behavior. A grown-ass-man is. I don't think you should beat yourself up over this.
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