(927) Flying chalk

This is my children's favorite of my teaching stories.

As a paid teacher or tutor, I have taught children as young as three years old in reading; as well as offered a computer literacy course to a woman as old as fifty-seven. During my temporary teaching stint, I taught Grade 3,4, and  5. In tutoring remedial English through the years, I have probably taught From 1 through 5. Most of my institutional teaching has been done in five colleges and universities.

There was a day that I completely lost my cool and threw a small piece of chalk at a student who continued on to whisper sweet nothings to his would be conquest, I presumed. I am usually a very clumsy thrower, but that day I just flung that piece of chalk and hit the young man's fore head. He was stunned. I remembered telling him that he was excused to leave the science laboratory I was using to have a private conference with his lady partner outside. He did not leave. But the entire class clamped down I did not hear any whisper for the rest of the hour.  

If I do not remember wrongly, that was a second year class. They were at least twenty years old. For most of them who left their home town to further their studies, they live away their parents. My children were incredulous that none complained to their parents. To answer that, my husband said that they would rather die than to be humiliated in front of their parents at that age. Well, my eldest said, why did the one being hit complain to the college office? I remember how well I got along with the office staff, nobody could find any fault with me as a part-time lecturer. If anything, I was working harder and did a better job than most of the full-timers. If he had been daring enough to complain, he would only make himself into a laughing stock among the college officials. The only remaining recourse would be to make a police report, yet moments after the chalk hit, he immediately rubbed away the chalk dust and thus erased all the evidence.There was no wound, no blue black, there would be no case.

After that incident, there had been no other disciplinary problem I face in teaching there subsequent semesters. My reputation went before me, all my students were in class on time every lecture. None dared to ask for toilet break during my class. I know I sound like a dragon lady in relating these, but after having the class under control I did enjoy teaching and usually got quite close to my students. Years later, a few of them told me that when they gathered together, they would recall my classes and the fun we had together. Well, that part of my life is over. I did not garner myself a Master's degree, in today's college market, I would not get another teaching job. Looking back, it was hard for me now to see how I became angry enough to do something like that.