Press Against The Counter And Break In Two
When I was a kid, I used to love making things out of popsicle sticks. That was my absolute favorite thing to do in arts and crafts. I was pretty terrible in art class. I was the kind of kid that drew pictures where the people were as big as the houses and the trees looked like lollipops. Also, we had this art teacher who was like the meanest lady in the world, and since I was an irredeemable goofball, she had me sitting in the corner with my head down more often than not.* But man, when they put the popsicle sticks down on the table, I was the king. They'd just drop a ton of sticks on the table with a boatload of the Elmer's glue and I'd just go to town and make whatever the heck I wanted.
*I just thought of a story that has nothing to do with this, but I felt like I should tell it anyway, because I think it illustrates just how awful some adults can be to kids and how easy it is to forget what it's like to be a kid. When I was in the 2nd grade, I really liked fish sticks. I don't know why. I just did. So whenever the school lunch was fish sticks, my mom wouldn't pack me a lunch. She'd give me a quarter or 35 cents (or whatever lunch cost back then) to buy my lunch. I hadn't yet learned to gamble, so this wasn't a risky proposition.** Anyway, at some point during this school year, they took fish sticks off the menu. I was devastated, as were a couple of my friends. We asked our teacher what we could do about it and she suggested that we put together a petition (and also explained what a petition was). So, we wrote out a small paragraph on a piece of notebook paper, and got the entire class of 2nd graders (not just our class, this was some 90 kids) to sign it. I was really proud. It was basically, on a very micro scale, democracy in action. We saw something didn't like and we mobilized to try to fix it. Sure enough, the whole class got called into the principal's office a few days later. She asked us who was responsible, and my friends and I proudly took credit. She then spent 10 minutes yelling at the class for doing this and how dare we question the school and the school board and how she was very disappointed at us. Then, she sent the rest of the class out, and berated me and my friends for another 10 minutes. Once we all started crying (or at least looked as though we were going to), she dismissed us. I don't specifically recall, but my really nice teacher***, had to be stunned by this. And in hindsight, I'm completely stunned that an educator (the head educator of the school no less) would discourage children this way. It's one thing if the petition wasn't going to do anything (it probably wouldn't), but to yell at us for trying to fix something the right way? It's horrifying. Tell us that you're proud that we tried to do something and you'll send it to the school board, then put it in your drawer and forget about it. We were 2nd graders. We probably would have forgotten in a day or two. So, whenever I feel like I forget what it's like to be a kid, I remember this, because I think the worst thing that you can do, the most unforgivable sin, is crush the innocence of a child.
**I did learn to gamble in 1985, when I was so disgusted by the Chicago Bears that I bet against them in Super Bowl XX with two of my friends (75 cents each), setting a lifelong precedent of lousy bets. I could not pay these debts when I lost and had to ask my dad for money, setting a precedent that would last for some time after this event.
***This teacher saw me in the local newspaper when they did a story about my game show appearance and wrote a lovely letter to me, with a couple of pictures from when I was in her class.
Long rambling asides notwithstanding, my point here is that I don't do a whole lot these days that's as emotionally gratifying to me as building things with popsicle sticks was. In a box, they're just the sad carcass of a delicious sugary frozen treat. When you put them together, they're a frame or a jewelry box for your mom or perhaps a magic wand or ornament for your car's rearview mirror.
So I've got some vacation coming up around the holidays. Anyone have any popsicle sticks?
*I just thought of a story that has nothing to do with this, but I felt like I should tell it anyway, because I think it illustrates just how awful some adults can be to kids and how easy it is to forget what it's like to be a kid. When I was in the 2nd grade, I really liked fish sticks. I don't know why. I just did. So whenever the school lunch was fish sticks, my mom wouldn't pack me a lunch. She'd give me a quarter or 35 cents (or whatever lunch cost back then) to buy my lunch. I hadn't yet learned to gamble, so this wasn't a risky proposition.** Anyway, at some point during this school year, they took fish sticks off the menu. I was devastated, as were a couple of my friends. We asked our teacher what we could do about it and she suggested that we put together a petition (and also explained what a petition was). So, we wrote out a small paragraph on a piece of notebook paper, and got the entire class of 2nd graders (not just our class, this was some 90 kids) to sign it. I was really proud. It was basically, on a very micro scale, democracy in action. We saw something didn't like and we mobilized to try to fix it. Sure enough, the whole class got called into the principal's office a few days later. She asked us who was responsible, and my friends and I proudly took credit. She then spent 10 minutes yelling at the class for doing this and how dare we question the school and the school board and how she was very disappointed at us. Then, she sent the rest of the class out, and berated me and my friends for another 10 minutes. Once we all started crying (or at least looked as though we were going to), she dismissed us. I don't specifically recall, but my really nice teacher***, had to be stunned by this. And in hindsight, I'm completely stunned that an educator (the head educator of the school no less) would discourage children this way. It's one thing if the petition wasn't going to do anything (it probably wouldn't), but to yell at us for trying to fix something the right way? It's horrifying. Tell us that you're proud that we tried to do something and you'll send it to the school board, then put it in your drawer and forget about it. We were 2nd graders. We probably would have forgotten in a day or two. So, whenever I feel like I forget what it's like to be a kid, I remember this, because I think the worst thing that you can do, the most unforgivable sin, is crush the innocence of a child.
**I did learn to gamble in 1985, when I was so disgusted by the Chicago Bears that I bet against them in Super Bowl XX with two of my friends (75 cents each), setting a lifelong precedent of lousy bets. I could not pay these debts when I lost and had to ask my dad for money, setting a precedent that would last for some time after this event.
***This teacher saw me in the local newspaper when they did a story about my game show appearance and wrote a lovely letter to me, with a couple of pictures from when I was in her class.
Long rambling asides notwithstanding, my point here is that I don't do a whole lot these days that's as emotionally gratifying to me as building things with popsicle sticks was. In a box, they're just the sad carcass of a delicious sugary frozen treat. When you put them together, they're a frame or a jewelry box for your mom or perhaps a magic wand or ornament for your car's rearview mirror.
So I've got some vacation coming up around the holidays. Anyone have any popsicle sticks?
Labels: random thoughts
posted by G.Wo @ 12:08 PM
2 Comments:
Wait, I thought our art teacher was mr what's-his-name, the guy who used to sing about the primary colors(red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue) - was there a chick before him???
Oh, ha. No, not Mr. Hewitt. I'm talking about Ms. Howard, that awful woman at Lime Kiln. There's some continuity issues here, I suppose.
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