@ruralgloom

Later that day, my teacher for the flour-baby project (without naming me) told our class that she had heard about… someone… who had reacted strongly to a damaged “baby.” She felt it necessary to remind everyone that these were not real babies, and we should not get too emotionally involved with them. 😂

Before I left class that day, this same teacher told me privately that I could just use a different bag of flour without any detriment to my grade.

In the end, I got an A on the project. My theory is that the teacher either thought I had taken it seriously enough to warrant the grade — or just that she didn’t want to make me angry. (2/2)

#Writing #FlashMemoir #SchoolProject #Nostalgia

@ruralgloom

We had the same project when I was in school in the 1970s, also a flour sack.

One of the boys in one of my other classes (not the same one as the flour-baby class) was a bit of a bully. He tried to make a joke out of threatening to throw my baby in the trash, but instead he dropped it by mistake– making a big mess in the process.

For the first time that most of the kids in that school had ever seen (at least, for the first time in some years), I stood up to a bully. The teacher for this class walked in, right as I was standing in front of him, and furiously bitching him out for what he had done. I went full crazy-mad on him, enraged that he had probably just ruined my project and my grade.

But the teacher interpreted my response to be my maternal protective instincts kicking in, and soon after getting us all to sit down, she warned the class about not messing with an angry Mama.

Later that day... (1/2)

#Writing #FlashMemoir #Nostalgia #SchoolProject