School is In

Now that school is in session I am back on the blog. I had a great summer, short, but great. Over the next few weeks I will share some of my summer experiences, but today, I want to talk about school. As the year begins, my 16th as a teacher, memories of years gone by rush back. This year I find myself thinking about my third grade year.
I always look back at the old elementary school building in Red Cloud with a certain amount of reverence. The drinking fountains in the middle of the floors, the wooden stairs warped in the middle from so many Ked’s and P.F. Flyers tromping up and down through the years. My favorite feature was the little hallways each classroom had for the kids to hang their coats. It ran the length of the room and had hooks on the wall. There was a door at the end of it that entered the classroom at the back of the room. We put coats, lunches, boots and any other random paraphernalia we brought to school for the day.
My teacher in third grade, who will remain nameless at this time, was not the best classroom manager in the world. Jeff Neely and I did nothing to help her. Very early in the year we figured out a wonderful little fact. If you acted like an idiot in class she would send you out in the hallway. Neely and I were all over this. Class would start, we would get mouthy, boom, “to the hallway.” You would think she would have been wise to us, you would think she would have figured out to not send us both out there at the same time. My guess is she knew better, but having the two of us out of her hair, was the ultimate prize. Neely and I loved it.
We were supposed to sit on the floor with our backs to the wall quietly until she came out to to retrieve us. That lasted about 10 seconds. First we would check out the lunch boxes. There was always a bag of m & M’s, a Reese’s Peanut Cup, or a Nestle’s Crunch to snag. Having satisfied our craving for a snack we began inventing different games to keep us occupied. The one we truly loved was “How far can you get?”
It went like this. One of us would get up and take off down the big, wide staircase and then come back. “How far did you get Jeff?”
“ I made it to the second floor, down by Mrs. Stokes’ room.” Then I would try and outdo him. One day I made it all the way down to the basement, past Mrs. Barta’s (A freaking saint) and all the way to the music room then back up. Neely couldn’t live with this, he had to top it. Off he goes down the stairs, and then I hear, “Jeffery Neely, where are you going.” The voice of God? No Just Orpha. Seconds later, and I truly mean seconds, back came Jeff on a dead run, he slid to a stop and sat down quickly. Orpha was not that easily fooled, she was on his tail, and her claws were out. “Are you supposed to be downstairs young Man?’
“No.”
This was too rich. “I told him not to go, I told him to stay here.”
I looked at Orpha with my best Opie Taylor smile.
She looked at me, her eyes narrow, no trace of a smile. “you know Ted the less you talk the better off you’ll be.”
I still haven’t learned that lesson.