By ABBY GROFF
Staff Writer
“I’ll wait.” The classroom continues to talk. Murmuring, gossiping, whispering doesn’t stop as the students’ fourth-grade teacher grows impatient. She taps her foot with an agitated rhythm. “That’s one minute taken off your recess,” she adds. Quickly the class goes silent. All except for the handful of rowdy boys in the back. Their conversation can’t wait just a minute! Obviously what’s going on in their lives is far more important than the education of their peers. What was the issue?
Sweet little Carol in the front of the class didn’t think so. She always ended the conversation with her deskmates as soon as it was once again time to learn, as did the majority of the class. Talking over the teacher hadn’t really become a problem until recently. For some reason, there had been an abrupt change in the students’ behavior, and both they and their teacher had to adapt.
Ron, known best for not following instructions, disregarded the teacher’s wishes and continued to talk. “There goes another minute,” the teacher chimed in. The class frantically began to shush the boys, but they went on and on and on until eventually the entirety of their recess was lost.
“Way to go, Ron!”
“You’ve ruined it for the rest of us!”
“Miss, we were listening to your instructions! Why do we have to get in trouble too?”
It became a daily occurrence. It became so bad to the point where back to back the fourth graders were losing their recess. Because it had been happening so frequently, the students had given up. They no longer cared about their recess. What was the point when Ron and his friends wouldn’t listen? There was nothing they could do, so the rest of them followed their lead. The teacher couldn’t do anything to quiet her classroom.
The only student who had listened despite the rest of the kids’ sudden change in attitude was Carol. Sadly she would watch out the window as the other classrooms were dismissed for recess, as usual, all because they had followed simple instructions. She didn’t enjoy being punished for her peers’ wrongdoings, but maybe, just maybe, she could set an example. However, it didn’t take long until the students had turned on her and began to tease her.
“You know you don’t have to get quiet anymore, right?”
“Why are you acting like the teacher’s pet?”
Carol shifted in her seat nervously. “Well,” she began, “I think it’s important you guys get to hear what our teacher is saying.” The others weren’t buying it. “You guys don’t get to learn when you’re talking over her. School isn’t even normal anymore; we’re stuck inside here for recess because you couldn’t get quiet for five minutes!” Carol snapped. “It’s only a small price to pay for a semi-normal experience, right?”
Carol replayed that moment from her childhood over and over years later even after she had entered high school. Frustrated, she sat at home with a frown on her face as she opened email after email explaining that prom had been canceled, graduation had been canceled, sports had been canceled, everything had been canceled.
…Because nobody could follow simple instructions.