Elastic bands

“So,” asked the lovely Olivia Crowe on Twitter earlier this week, “what do you think of girls flicking elastic bands in class?” Here’s my reply…

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The first term was always interesting – a battle of wills between each girl and her new schoolmates, and between the girls and their new teachers.

He did not lose battles of will.

It was only the third week when she tried to test him. Flicked an elastic band at her neighbour, which he chose to ignore. Flicked another towards the front of the class, where he stood teaching. “I shall be generous and assume that that was not intended for me,” he commented. “But you will serve a detention.”

Five minutes passed, before the next missile appeared, flying past his shoulder and hitting the blackboard. “Out!” he ordered, despatching her to the corridor. “Stand up straight facing the wall, with your hands on your head. I shall deal with you at the end of the lesson.”

He checked on her, of course, through the glass in the classroom door. He was pleased to note that she seemed too terrified to disobey his instructions. And when the bell rang, and the class had filed out of the room in silence, and he’d placed the cane on his desk at the front of the room, he called her back in.

“I will not stand for that sort of behaviour in my class. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir. I’m sorry, I just got carried away. It won’t happen again.”

“Indeed it won’t. But at this juncture, I am less concerned with instilling the discipline to prevent a repetition, than in punishing you for what has just taken place.”

“Please, sir….”

“I could deal with you now, of course. But I rather feel it would be more effective to do so when we next meet. We have a class immediately after morning break tomorrow. I shall cane you at the start of it, so that your classmates can see justice being done. I shall give you eight strokes, on the bare. Now: pick up your books and run along to your next lesson, and we shall continue this discussion in 24 hours’ time…”