detained
I can’t believe I forgot to type about this but I was busy having a perfect fall football weekend so it slipped my mind. Anyway, the boy got himself his first Junior High or Middle School Detention! (I am completely confused by the name change since I was a kid and have no idea what the difference if any is so I typed them both as if you wouldn’t understand my point. sorry.) I was in the middle of a meeting when I glanced down and noticed a text from the lad at 3:34pm so Maggie must have counseled him on my Bad News Early Good News Often policy.
The text was as follows: I got in trouble at school for blowing down paper on my desk at school
The best I could figure in the little time and thought I put to it was that someone had some work on their desk and he blew it off causing a reprimand from a teacher. I didn’t think another thing about it until I got home. On the counter was a detention slip entitled Think About It! This must be the new age sissified way of dealing out punishment because the meat of the slip was written in my sons cereal killer scary handwriting. The slip goes a little something like this:
Think About It!
- What was I doing? trying a magic trick.
- Why is this behavior inappropriate? someone was speaking. (not really sure if he knows what inappropriate means)
- How can I improve my behavior? Don’t do it again.
- What is the consequence if this behavior continues? Anoth Detention (the teacher just let that go?)
That mess is followed by my child’s signature, the teachers signature, and Liza’s signature. I think this was a deliberate move to keep me from commenting in writing about the whole thing. I am not afraid to put my foot up one of my kids asses when necessary but this is ridiculous. As the story unfolded the teacher was involved in the initial trick and applauded the kid who showed it to everyone. Big shock that six of the boys watching all tried the trick at their own desks only to receive detentions because the teacher had shifted back into instruction mode. So the six magicians will be sitting after school on Monday unless Max’s Asian friend who has never been in trouble before and was sobbing uncontrollably after he was handed the slip in class is forced to do something drastic because he brought shame to his family. Then it will just be the five of them for those not strong in the math skills.
I had to give Max my take on this and why it can never happen again. I told him that he will have a lot of bosses in his life. Even if he chooses to work for himself (must counter possible smartass retort before it leaves his mouth) then the customers become your boss so he’d better get used to dealing with the difficult ones now. When your boss is speaking shut up and listen. Here endeth the lesson.
A magic trick detention… at least he didn’t do something horrible like threaten to step on another kids shadow. I am fighting a strong urge to bully his teacher as an object lesson on detention worthy behavior but I don’t think that would help Max with his remaining time at the school.
“Trying a magic trick” aw that makes me just sad that he got in trouble for something so imaginative! Sounds like the teacher overreacted a tad.