|
Beaten For Bad Grades before/after We are back in the classroom of a Lutheran School in the midwest. It is a sunny day. A brown haired, blue eyed boy has been wasting the day staring out the window. His reading assignment is done. He is now in the fourth grade. The teacher is tallying the grades for the marking period. She proceeds to read out loud each students individual grades to the entire class. Each grade, in each subject. The brown haired blue eyed boy didn't care. He was a little embarassed, because he got all A's without trying, while others tried hard and failed, but such is life. The teacher came to two students, Peter and Paul, who had been slow learners. It wasn't their fault that they were not bright. Everyone knew they weren't bright. This made the teacher angry. Very angry. She seethed as she read the succession of grades. All F's. She paused at the last, dramatically, which was Paul's F. The boys were in tears at the public embarassment. The brown haired blue eyed boy didn't care. They earned it. Peter and Paul were resentful. They refused to sit up in their desks. This made the teacher furious. Her head turned red. She grabbed them by the ears and took them to the office. The children sat in silence. This was unexpected. In the distance, the class heard her hit new levels of shouting. Her voice resounded throughout the tiny school. Eventually the teacher came back to the class. Her head was even more red. Spittle was on her chin from yelling so loudly. She was in a rage, and couldn't express herself well. Eventually the fifth and sixth grade teacher came over, and helped the children off to lunch, which was her apparent desire. The children heard her take Peter to the Library, which was a converted closet. She shut the door as the children filed out to the gym, which doubled as the cafeteria. The children were silent. In the distance we heard screaming. "No! NO! NOOOOOO!" Peter screamed. "Move your hand!" the teacher yelled, "MOVE YOUR HAND!!!!!" "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Peter screamed. Peter was being punished for bad grades. The children heard the dull swat of repeated strokes of punishment. His screams resounded throught the cafeteria. The children ate, and managed to tune out the punishments. The brown haired, blue eyed boy managed to eat. It was difficult. The food got caught in his throat. He had to wash it down with milk. His mouth was dry. He turned to his best friend, and they exchanged glances, not daring to speak. Neither of them knew what was going on, but they knew it wasn't right. Eventually Peter and Paul shuffled into the cafeteria with their heads down, their cheeks flush and stained with tears. Their spirits had been broken. Later on, the children would let Peter and Paul cheat. Just enough to get by. The brown haired, blue eyed boy helped them by letting them cheat off of him sometimes, and when he got tired of their laziness, convincing the others to help out. Just enough so they didn't get beaten They managed 'D's the rest of the way.
|
