I spent an awful lot of time in first grade standing in line.
The teacher would line us up to go out to recess, and then,
tragically, insist on the lot of us being silent before she
would dismiss us to the bedlam of the school yard. But a moment
of order imposed on young humans is far too much to ask. Our
young are endlessly fascinated by every syllable that comes out
of their own mouths, and it was simply impossible to expect them
to realize that 30 seconds of silence meant 30 minutes of play
time. Instead, we stood in line for 20 of those thirty minutes
nearly every day until some of them got the message.
I didn't realize then how the rest of life was really just an
extension of first grade. The bad kids got all the attention.
Everybody got punished for the behavior of a few. The dumb kids
won every argument by saying "I know you are but what am I?"
over and over in an effort to irritate the ones who could think.
Now they call that owning the Libs. Back then it was just being
a jerk.
