Flower Top Ten: Flowers Are Red (#7)

A favorite of mine, too. I’m so thankful I got to see him live.

@FourWalls Lucky you. That was a treat I am sure.

@FourWalls Wow your timing was good. Nice memories for you.

My favorite teacher story was the day in first grade when I came home and told my mom I’d been whacked on the knuckles and told to put the pencil in my right hand “where it belongs.” She had me flapping in the breeze behind her and she walked up to school (we lived a block away), marched unannounced and uninvited into the principal’s office, and said, “My mother was left handed. I’m left handed. My daughter is left handed. She’d better NEVER come home with another mark on her knuckles again.” Next day, I was in a different class.

@DaddyEvil — I admire your composure. I would’ve asked him to show it to me then shown him a dull axe.

@FourWalls Wow! I don't blame your mom! I would have been upset, too! Pretty kept catching teacher lying to the class because they weren't well versed in their subjects. The first two times I went to the school and met the principal. When he heard that Pretty had corrected a teacher because she was saying things that weren't correct, he told the teacher to learn her subject better. The third time it happened, he fired the teacher. When Pretty was in the eighth grade, she was a well-developed child. (The women in my family mature young.) She was told by the vice-principal to meet him in his office because she had supposedly touched another girl's shoulder and that wasn't allowed. In the vice-principal's office, he unzipped and wanted her to touch him. She called me and I went to the school... I wasn't happy. The principal and vice-principal asked me to step into the principal's office to "have a little chat". The vice-principal tried to say he hadn't done anything wrong. I told them both that there were consequences to behavior unsuited to people around children. The principal kept trying to get me to say I wanted to hit the vice-principal. I laughed and said I have a LOT of experience in the courts and MUCH preferred the thought of suing the crap out of the vice-principal and the school district and seeing who would win... The vice-principal was fired.

@FourWalls He was.

He was a hoot.

That hurt is permanent. I got hurt that way, and the promise of my dream of writing a book was destroyed in the process.

@FourWalls I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure some teachers don't realise how much their remarks are taken to heart.

His biggest hit was “Cat’s in the Cradle.”

@FourWalls Ohhh, OK. I know that one.

Amen! Kids should be free to explore their creativity. They’ll grow up fast enough. Great comment, thank you!

@FourWalls I am glad that you agree here. Many feel that children need to be taught not to make mistakes. They really make learning so tiresome and trying to fit all in the same cookie cutter just kills the joy of teaching and learning.

I think we’ve all had one of “those” teachers. You captured the essence of one in your book. (Dang Marines. )

I turned the paperwork in. It’s a question of them paying the city for the EMS, and the city reimbursing me. The VA won’t do it.

Just take your cats in the cradle, will ya?!