... a dead branch, realized the branch held a poisonous water moccasin, and promptly gave a demonstration of running on water, leaving his younger brother in the middle of the river, trying to figure out how to get back to the bank without disturbing the moccasin.
Interesting to note the development of formal procedures in academics over the years. We have a friend who is on the faculty at a certain high school (I will not name the city or the school). One of her duties is to discipline recalcitrant students. Several weeks ago a 17 year old girl was sent to her. Apparently every other word that came from the girl's mouth was a profanity. Our friend called the parents who came to school and proceeded to berate our friend (they did call the next day and apologize). Eventually, our friend called security and had them escorted off campus. I understand that the girl finally received a one week suspension. In going through all this, our friend had to follow a very detailed set of instructions and procedures and record all the actions. That's the modern way of doing things.
Back about 80 years ago, I also ran into trouble. I was the sophomore equipment manager for the athletic teams at our high school. One day a player came in and asked for a piece of equipment that I knew I had already given him. We had an argument which grew more and more heated until I finally lost my temper and yelled "Peewee, you're crazier than hell!" Unfortunately, the principal happened to be standing at the head of the stairs that led up from the basement, where we were, to the first floor. He came running down stairs and demanded who said that. Of course, I had to admit it. He said, "boy, you are suspended. Leave the school grounds right now."
That night at dinner, I told my parents what had happened. I got no sympathy whatever. Their reaction was you broke a rule and now you have to live with the consequences. Eventually, however, they thought about the fact that if I wasn't reinstated, I would have to go to reform school. It had no euphemistic name; it was simply known as reform school. And it was for kids who messed up. It was also a disgrace for a kid to have to go there. So my dad said he would see what he could do.
The next morning he called the principal who had absolute authority over the school. The principal decided that if my dad would take me to the office of the superintendent of the schools, and plead my case, the principal would abide by any decision that came down.
So away we went. We got into the office and actually were seen by the superintendent himself. Both of us apologized and the two adults discussed my case. Since I had no blemishes on my record up til then, the superintendent finally decided that I could go back to high school. So he called the principal and I was reinstated. In my memory, school principals were given absolute authority (in this case, the principal delegated it to the superintendent of schools). That's an illustration of the rule that I expressed in the first posting of this blog -if you delegate responsibility you should delegate commensurate authority. That's the way it was here and I think it was the best way. The whole thing was settled in 24 hours with no participation of anyone else besides my dad who acted the part of an advocate for me-no parents, no lawyers, no other personnel, and no recourse.
