Humility is my strong suit, and Texas is crazy
Today at work, I gave a presentation to a couple. As they were leaving, the man said, “Thank you. You have a great job.” And I said, “Yes, I agree!” with a most upbeat nod. He gave me an odd look and walked away. Then I realized he actually said, “Thank you. You did a great job.”
Humility is my strong suit.
On that note, I was basically the perfect child. Good grades, never misbehaved, read like it was going out of style – mostly Babysitter’s Club, but Christopher Pike made his way onto my bookshelves around the same time that Are you afraid of the dark? was a hit. Yes, I was also a tattletale and had a brief but fierce season of bitchiness in third grade. But those went under the radar, and I was never in trouble.
That’s why I was so perplexed during a conversation tonight with my friends. Either that, or Texas is a messed up state. You be the judge.
Ashley is a teacher. One of her second-grade students said the “F word” today. TJ said, “Did you give him a whoopin’?” I just thought that was TJ’s way of saying, “Was he in big trouble?” I mean, the guy calls a refrigerator an icebox, so I sometimes have to use my country thesaurus when talking to him.
I was sorely mistaken. All four of my Texan friends informed me that they were hit with paddles as punishment in school. Let me clarify: They were not schooled in a one-room house with individualized chalkboards as their writing tablets. This happened in public schools, through high school, in the 20th century.
As TJ described it, his football coaches would use the paddles when students were out of line. Trey said some paddles had holes in them. It hurt to sit down afterward. To use Laura’s words, “That’s what they call givin’ you a lickin’!”
If you’re like me, you’re assuming that they’re pulling my leg. But they thought I was crazy when I mentioned the bad kids going to in-school suspension. I was a good and perfect child, like I said, so maybe this kind of punishment was happening in Colorado too. Somehow I doubt it.
It’s like I always say: spare the rod, provide a healthy learning environment. But maybe that’s just me.
pasha,
just to add to that…i was given lickin’s throughout my time in school as well. in middle school i was often given the choice between a lick or an after-school detention. i ALWAYS chose the lick, not because it didn’t hurt (the principal was an old coach with these huge arms) but because then my parents didn’t find out. i always got twice at home what i got at school if they heard about it! i n one case it was because a girl screamed in algebra class when i threw a cricket in her five mile radius. another time i got shoved into a hvac closet in social studies (clearly ironic, huh?) and it was deemed a class disruption on my part?? wha??
Bread, don’t even get me started on Texas crickets
I would have screamed too.
Well let’s all be honest…Texas is a bit crazy…but dang if we don’t all love it!
I’m pretty sure that “whoopin’s” wouldn’t go over very well in Colorado, not that some kids didn’t deserve them but I never saw anyone get one when I was growing up either.
the paddles used by our teachers and principals became the stuff of legends when I was in primary school.
-After breaking a paddle on a students hind parts, it was said that Mr. Freeman opted for a 2×4 because of its simplistic and sturdy design.
-Principal Taylor had her paddle specially constructed with in-laid “electric shockers”. I think it was German made.
-Principal Gomez would strap students down on his desk so they couldn’t flinch.
now I’m just getting all nostalgic.
What’s a refrigerator?
Since my mom taught at the same elementary school as I went to, they always called her down to give me spankings (it happened twice–one because I punched a boy, and once because I bit another girl).
At my junior high and high school though, they couldn’t use the paddle because the rate of teen pregnancy was so high that they didn’t want to take the risk of hurting someone who didn’t know that they were pregnant.