|
broke out into laughter.
• "What are you laughing at?" my wife asked.
• "I'm just thinking of Mrs. Ammon. When I went to school we didn't need any armed guards, we had Mrs. Ammon and nobody crossed her."
• The news report went on to say how they were trying to put armed guards at every school in our country. I suppose that is a good idea, I do not know all the ins and outs of the politicalness of that report. Everything these days seems to have some kind of a political angle to it. Now that political angle is intruding itself into the public school system.
• This is all an attempt to protect our school children. I am all for that.
• I was thinking, however, that when I was a youngster we did not need that sort of thing. We had Mrs. Ammon and her infamous hickory stick. Very few people remember a time when a teacher had, as one of her tools for education, a hickory stick and knew how to wield it, and wield it they did.
• Somebody may ask how I know about that. Very simply. I am the product of a teacher wielding the hickory stick. It is hard now to remember the occasion that called for the application of that hickory stick. Actually, there was more than one occasion calling for such teacher and student interaction.
• The old saying was that our teacher would apply the "Board of Education" to the "Seat of Learning." Believe me when I say, I earned a degree in that.
• Somebody will say, "Things have changed."
• I will agree that things have changed, but most things have not changed for the better. Back in "the day" when I was a member of the public education system, the teachers were in charge. A basic rule in our house prevailed, "If you get a paddling in school, you get a paddling at home." It was assumed the teacher was right.
• I distinctly remember my first interaction with my teacher in this regard. How can you forget such a thing?
• At that time, teachers were too busy to put up with any kind of fooling around in a classroom. Do not get me wrong, my teacher made it fun most of the time. For the ones who, like me, took it too far, she knew how to stop it dead in its tracks.
• "Mr. Snyder," the teacher would say in a very stern tone of voice. "Is that you making all that noise?" I knew what was to follow.
(Continued on page 16)
|
|
