And I was getting in trouble because I have a paperback copy of "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" tucked inside the "See Dick chase Jane" book, and despite me reading aloud a passage of her choosing, called me a liar, and said I could not possibly be reading that book.
That was the day I lost my innocents and realized that grown-ups could be cruel, arrogant, and and deliberately wrong. It was also the day I discovered just what a truly, momentously bad idea it was to threaten one of my mother's children.
I was in the principals office when Mom got there, waiting in fear, because in those days, getting in trouble at school meant getting in trouble at home too. To my six year old mind, if home had to come to school because of trouble, well, the consequences were likely to be too terrible to contemplate. So Mom comes into the room already steaming, I did not know she knew why I was there, but the first words out of her mouth were, "Are you calling my son a liar?"
The principal, a lady of elegant southern upbringing smugly replied, "His teacher says he told her he was reading from a book well above his reading level, what do you propose we call it?"
Seldom at a loss for words, Mom replied, "Incompetence."
The principal clearly did not expect that reply, and replied something along the lines of, "Excuse me?"
Now I should admit that this all happened 55 years ago, and long ago gained the status of family legend, so the precise wording of parts of this is perhaps refined a bit, and a tiny bit more eloquent than actually happened. I do clearly remember my mother pointing to her bookshelf and asking her to select a book she was confident I had not read. (The teachers accusation was that I had obviously memorized an approximately 175 page paperback that had no pictures - more on this later) The Principal, taken aback, picked out what I recall as the sixth grade social studies book, still to this day the largest text book I have ever personally used. Mom then said open it to a random page, and point to a random paragraph (or words to that effect) and told me to read what the principal had pointed out. Being a boy who liked to show off what he was good at, I read it silently, asked what one word meant, and then read it aloud, as Grandpa insisted, with feeling.
Mrs. Principal, clearly surprised for some reason I didn't understand flipped to another page, and pointed to a different paragraph. I do remember looking at it and telling her it would be cheating, because I had memorized the preamble to the constitution, after which I was sent out to the secretary's area to wait with some rather surprised school office staff, who had all assumed I would be in great distress, for in my little Arkansas mountain town, corporal punishment was still all the rage.
A brief period of time later Mom came out of the office followed by the principal. When we got to the classroom, I was sent in to gather all of my things, as I did the principal had a "discussion" with the teacher in the hall. I don't remember what was said out there, although I do remember raised voices, the only thing I remember about what was said between the grownups was "If he could memorize that whole paperback, don't you think he would be better at remembering math facts?" in which we were drilled at incessantly.
The next thing I remember was hearing my Mom say, "No, you shamed him in front of the class, so you'll apologize there as well," and a red faced and obviously angry first grade teacher came in the room, admitted that she was wrong, and actually apologized! I strongly suspect that my face look like that of the child in the picture posted by @instructor144.
I ended up in a different classroom, where my reading level was evaluated as that of a seventh grade student, but I remained a mediocre student at best. I tried, really I did, but between learning to live without my father, who had died in a boating accident on the eve of my family being transferred to France by the USAF, being terribly awkward and not understanding that showing off wasn't the best way to make friends, and having diagnosed but untreated ADHD (another story for another day) conspired against my best efforts. I would be in high school before I figured out how to self medicate with coffee and Coca-Cola, and achieved some semblance of success.
Two lessons I did learn that day were that if I knew I was right, to stand up for myself, and that when the chips were down, mom had my back.
I had never had reason to really think about it before that day. I was 100% boy, and I got in plenty of trouble, but not nearly as much as I deserved. That set in concrete that we stood up for each other, and that Mom, and by extension my grandparents, would believe and support us.
Oh, and @instructor144, I would really like to know how you got a picture of my little brother at three years old, okay, it isn't really a picture of my brother, but is is a close enough resemblance I had to stop and think about it.
titsay
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
amandla
romaincrisis
