Blaming the Person, Not the Useful Gun

MY TEACHING CAREER was long, varied, and tumultuous. One time a high school principal called me into his office, A-Gain - and demmanded to know why I had the temerity to teach my history classes that Thomas Jeffferson was not a Chrsitian, and was essentially an atheist, his being a "deist". I thought the question needless, the answer obvious. A bit tired of being constantly called in to expalin such matters, matters such a why in the world I allowed an eighteen year old student to hop in her car, drive down the street, and grab a dozen donuts, I, in a bit of a pique, answered with a question: "Why don't you take a wild guess?" He didn't like that. I knew my time there was limited. It was. My bucket list was to spend significant time teaching every grade level. Why not? I'm not married. I met my goal; every grade, Head Start thru college. My cup, as they say, runneth over. It was the first grade girl with the big shoulder chip and bigger stick who most urgently gained my attention. It was nearly as big as she. It could only be used as a walking stick or a weapon, and she had no trouble walking. She did not, however, walk softly. Whether she intended to use it to do harm I could not surmise; you never can. Menacingly she wielded it. A deterrant? Self protection? A petty show of force and power? I decided that whereas she indeed had an unalienable, inalienable right to her notebooks, books, and pencils, the pencil capable of doubling potential weapons, the stick could serve no utilitarian purpose oher than to strike. I took the damned thing away from her, a preemptive act; damn her proprietary rights. Community safety comes first. This, despite the fact that she had nto yet done any harm with it, and that there was no blatant, covert indication that she intended to, despite her surly appearance and attitude. For the rest of the schook year, she swatted nobody with a stick, because, perhaps, she didn't have a stick. Even if she had hurt somebody with it, I would not have blamed the stick. Sticks don't hit kids, kids hit kids with sticks. Yes,she could stab someone with a pencil. With that, we'll have to take our chances. But pencils have a good, utilitarian purpose, unlike a big stick at school. I thought about it carefully, and decided against giving every student a stick. That option never entered my mind, although my conservative colleagues suggested it. The stick was a privilege,a privilege she lost under the suspicions of legitimate authority. sometimses, infringing rights into privileges is merely a matter of sense, and societal survival.