My Incredulity Knows No Boundaries

With thirteen school days remaining on my sixteenth year of teaching, I have to reflect on a conversation with a parent today. Once again, apples do not fall far from the parental tree.

My students are completely taken with Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Whenever kids ask where on the shelf the Wimpy Kid books are, I tell them to look in the section titled "Wishful Thinking." Some get the joke. Most do not. These books never make it to the shelf. Some of them are pretty dog-eared and scuffed. In truth, I would rather see a book beat up and well-read than pristine and never leaving the shelf. One was returned today with the back cover ripped off. Since all copies of that title are currently checked out, I am sure to recover the cost from the kid who fails to turn in their copy.

The latest edition in the series, Cabin Fever, is so popular that I ordered six copies in a library binding. At 22 bucks a pop, these are much more expensive than the trade hardcover from Target. There is a waiting list of 150 kids to get these six copies. Many kids decided to buy their own copy. One, however, thought she could obtain a stolen copy from my library, write her name in it, and call it her own. Yes, crime does not pay and the book was found with her name on the inside cover and on the page side. One endpaper with the school stamp was ripped out, but the back cover was stamped, the barcode was still attached, and the spine label was intact.  Due to this young lady's latest attempt at trying to gin my system, she now owes $76 in lost and damaged books.

This didn't deter her mother from trying to argue that her daughter should not pay for it.

Mom's argument was that her daughter did not steal the book. She received it from another third grader who told her he "won it in a drawing." Since it was another kid who stole the book in the first place, he should be the  responsible party. I told her that the boy in question would never, in a million years, admit to stealing the book. I have absolutely no evidence - other than her daughter's story - that the boy stole the book. The evidence I DO have is HER name in it.

"Couldn't you just erase her name and take the book back?"

No, she has defaced the book and was in possession of stolen property.

"Twenty-two dollars seems like an awfully high price for a library book."

Considering it is a sewn and glued binding, with processing added at the distributor, that is about the running price.

"Could I just buy another copy at the store and give it to the library?"

No, the reason the book cost 22 bucks is because of the special binding and processing.

"She didn't know it was a library book. What if it came from the county library sale table?"

The girl KNEW it was a library book. It was identical to the one she asked to read IN the library and was told she could not check out because of the wait list. Secondly, it is a brand new book. It would not be in the discarded section of the public library. If it was, it would be stamped "No longer the property of St. Louis County Library.

"She's 8! How would she know what that means?"

"Ma'am," I said. "My niece is six and in kindergarten. She knows that a library book is not HER property to write in. Considering your daughter was in possession of the book with a library binding, a stamp on the back page, and TWO stickers which suggest it was a school library book, I find it hard to believe she 'didn't know' this was a library book."

"Well, I don't think she should pay for it because she didn't steal it."

I told her the saying "Possession is 9/10 of the law." The kid she allegedly received the book from is not exactly the most reputable child in school, and even if he wasn't, a basic amount of common sense would lead one to believe this was stolen property. If someone is pulled over and the cop says the car is stolen, does this preclude the driver from being arrested for possession of stolen property?

By now, she was running out of room to argue and admitted her daughter told her a complete fabrication. She was so grateful that I was able to give her "clarification."

The kid was already on the hook for 38 bucks in lost books from last year. I had been letting her check out one book at a time as an encouragement for her to read. If anything, I had been extraordinarily generous. I had even offered the child a chance to settle the past due account for 50 cents on the dollar. I kept hearing "Oh, my mama said she will get it to you." Now the deal is off the table.

My brother and I make quite a few jokes at our mother's expense. She is quirky and has questionable tastes in liquor. However, the woman IS ethical. I can not imagine Rob and I getting into trouble with school or the law and having Mom defend a lie or even lie on our behalf. Growing up in Vermont, we knew she had a morning meeting at 7:30 and if we missed the bus we were on our own to get to school. We also knew she would not give us a ride or call and excuse us. We were given a great deal of freedom but that freedom came with the caveat of not doing anything regretfully stupid.

Leaving the conversation, I did offer up a positive comment. I genuinely like the kid, and appreciate the fact that she loves coming the library. She drives me bananas at times but I realize that most kids can do that.

Very few children, I believe, are "bad seeds." Some are just mean, cruel people and there is no way around that. This kid is not a bad seed. She exhibits behaviors she learns at home. Manipulate, obfuscate, deny and wear people down until you get your way or until the other party gives in out of frustration. When I was younger, I might break something and Dad would ask "Jon, did you break this?" "No," I responded. "It broke."

Dad would ask me again, and I would eventually admit to breaking it. To my father, my admitting and taking ownership was more important than whatever cost the object held. Students have come to me ASKING to pay for a book that was destroyed by a baby sister or a dog and I have invariably reduced the price as a reward for being faithful and honest. I want them to learn that ethical behavior does have rewards. I like to think this is my father's teachings lived through my actions.

Once again, the lesson learned is that an ethical parent is a child's first and best teacher.

My new Reader's Theatre play

Having spent much of February teaching about different aspects of Black History Month, I was shocked to discover that by third grade some students still had this idea that Martin Luther King was married to Rosa Parks. Some even thought he freed the slaves.

I quit shaking my head and decided to spend this culminating week learning more about Rosa Parks and giving the kids a bit of participatory fun.

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Go Ahead and Call Them: A Reader’s Theater Play About Rosa Parks

Jonathan Sanders, Jury Elementary School, Hazelwood School District

Scene: Montgomery Fair Department Store, Montgomery, Alabama

Manager:  Rosa, thank you for putting in extra time today. So many folks want clothes pressed and altered for the Christmas season.  Is it possible for you to come in early tomorrow? I think we are going to be as busy as today.

Rosa: Thank you, sir. I will come in early. I could use the hours.

Narrator: Rosa Parks walks to the bus stop near the Montgomery Fair Department Store. She is tired. Her back and legs hurt from many hours pressing clothes and handling alterations. Rosa takes her seat in the middle of the bus.

Two black men sit in the two seats next to her. She shares a seat with another black man. Several stops later, a white man gets on the bus and the driver looks in the rear view mirror.

Rosa clutches her purse and thinks to herself.

Rosa: [aside]: I want nothing more than to go home, see Raymond, and put my feet up. It has been a long, long day.

Bus Driver: “I’m gonna need you folks in the middle seats to head back to the colored section. I need to offer this gentleman a seat.”

Narrator: The three black men move to the “colored” section of the bus. Rosa Parks sits there. She refuses to move.

Bus Driver: “Ma’am, you need to move to the back of the bus. The law is the law.”

Rosa : “I know what the law says. I am not going to move.”

Bus Driver: “Ma’am, if you don’t move I am going to have to call the police.”

Rosa: “Go ahead and call them. Do what you must.”

Narrator: Passengers begin to murmur as the driver exits the bus and crosses the street to a pay phone. They show different emotions.

White male passenger: [aside] “Why isn’t this colored woman moving to the back of the bus? It’s not like she doesn’t know what the law is! The law is the law and we all have to follow it. I’m tired! I want to get home!”

White female passenger: [aside] “Now why does she have to be like this? Just go to the back of the bus and let us all get where we need to go!”

Black male child: “Mama, why isn’t that lady moving to the back of the bus? Are the police gonna make all of us get off the bus?”

Black mother:  “Child, hush yourself! You know nothing good is gonna come from this.”

Black male passenger:  [aside] “We all know what the law says, we’ve been trying for years to get this law changed. I want to get home, too!”

Narrator: Several Montgomery police cars pull up, lights spinning.  The driver and two white officers board the bus.

Officer One: “Ma’am, you know you can be arrested for this.”

Officer Two: [to the driver] “We can have her removed from the bus and given a warning or you can swear out a warrant and we can arrest her.”

Bus Driver: “I will swear out a warrant. Go ahead and arrest her so I can get this bus moving and finish the route.”

Narrator: The Police take Rosa into custody. She is taken to the police station, booked, and fingerprinted. She gets one phone call and she uses it to call E.D. Nixon, a prominent member of the Montgomery Chapter of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The day after the arrest, Jo Ann Robinson and the members of the Women’s Political Council (WPC) printed a leaflet that called for a one day boycott.

This is what it read:

Reader 1:  Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down.

Reader 2: It is the second time since the Claudette Colbert case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped.

Reader 3: Negroes have rights, too, for if Negroes did not ride the bus they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negroes, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother.

Reader 1: This woman’s case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the busses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don’t ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday.

Reader 2: You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus.

Reader 3: You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups don’t ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses.

Narrator: Jo Ann Robinson was a professor of English at Alabama State University in Montgomery. Like Dr. King, she played a major part in getting the word out.

Professor Robinson: “Rosa Parks was not the only African-American who had to suffer the indignity of standing on a bus with empty seats. The year before she was arrested, three black women were arrested for doing the same thing she did. As soon as I found out about her arrest, I gathered several of my senior students and contacted a colleague in the college’s printing office. We worked through the night running copies on the old mimeograph machine. We put three messages to a page and by 4 a.m. we had tens of thousands of copies ready to distribute. With help from other members of the WPC, we made sure every black man, woman, and child in Montgomery would read one of our leaflets. We had planned months before for a boycott. Now our planning had paid off.”

Narrator: Nearly every African-American in Montgomery refused to ride the bus on Monday. A meeting that night was attended by over a thousand people. The boycott continued for 381 days – over a year – until the city changed its local law.

Rosa Parks: You might be wondering what happened to me in court. Well, I was found guilty of violating city ordinance and fined $14. My lawyer and I appealed and in November 1956, almost a year after my arrest, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. The law was changed the following month.

Narrator: Rosa Parks and her family moved to Detroit in 1957 but she continued to speak out for civil rights. She died in 2005 at the age of 92. She and other brave people like Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Jo Ann Robinson, and tens of thousands of other people took a stand for civil rights.