From September, 1963 until June, 1970 I was the art teacher at Waterloo Junior Hugh School in Howard County, Maryland. Somewhere in that time we became Waterloo Middle School, and sometime later, when I was long gone, the school was torn down to make way for a new road.
Many of the experiences, and the stories I was to use for the rest of my life, stemmed from my time there. It was a great place to experience life and to enjoy teaching. I owe most of the rest of my life to those times.
I was on a free period one spring day, probably in 1965, when I wandered into the front office to say hello to the school secretary and see what was going on.
I heard a commotion coming down the hall, and I want to the office door to see what was happening. Running toward me at full speed was Mike, an 8th grader with a great sense of humor and a wiseass for sure. I liked him and was able to easily deal with him in class. He saw me and started screaming, “Help! Mr. Greenblatt, help me!” I was startled,. “What’s wrong?”
He told me that a substitute teacher, a retired Army Colonel (I think) was after him. No sooner than I had gotten him into the front office to calm him down than the retired Army officer came running, at full speed yelling, “I’m making a citizen’s arrest!”, and he lunged for the student.
The student lunged for me to protect him; I fell backwards trying not to be killed by both of them and backed into the principals’ door.
The three of us crashed through the Principals door, first there was me, falling backwards, the student hugging me and the substitute, clinging onto the student.
We were a human sandwich, and the Principal was on the phone with the superintendent of schools!
I scrambled to my feet, smiled and mouthed quietly that it was not my issue and got out of there as quickly as possible.
Many of the experiences, and the stories I was to use for the rest of my life, stemmed from my time there. It was a great place to experience life and to enjoy teaching. I owe most of the rest of my life to those times.
I was on a free period one spring day, probably in 1965, when I wandered into the front office to say hello to the school secretary and see what was going on.
I heard a commotion coming down the hall, and I want to the office door to see what was happening. Running toward me at full speed was Mike, an 8th grader with a great sense of humor and a wiseass for sure. I liked him and was able to easily deal with him in class. He saw me and started screaming, “Help! Mr. Greenblatt, help me!” I was startled,. “What’s wrong?”
He told me that a substitute teacher, a retired Army Colonel (I think) was after him. No sooner than I had gotten him into the front office to calm him down than the retired Army officer came running, at full speed yelling, “I’m making a citizen’s arrest!”, and he lunged for the student.
The student lunged for me to protect him; I fell backwards trying not to be killed by both of them and backed into the principals’ door.
The three of us crashed through the Principals door, first there was me, falling backwards, the student hugging me and the substitute, clinging onto the student.
We were a human sandwich, and the Principal was on the phone with the superintendent of schools!
I scrambled to my feet, smiled and mouthed quietly that it was not my issue and got out of there as quickly as possible.
Who knows what happens in the sacred halls of academe? The Shakow.
ReplyDeleteOkay! It works. I wonder what happened to the guy from New Hampshire? I also wonder why no one wrote any comments on his blog. I'll miss him. It's nice to know he didn't bump you off. The Berger
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