Those 70ish Girls

By Valerie Halla

We have all heard the saying, “I thought I made a mistake one time, but I was mistaken” and I often berate myself for being careless and making silly mistakes now that I’m older, but then I think back. When I was younger and teaching elementary school, often the days would be tiring and stressful. We teachers would be working hard and looking forward to a vacation or the weekend. The job of teachers is physically and mentally tough. One morning I had picked up my brightly colored attendance folder in the office and as usual was about to take roll call and hot lunch count but I couldn’t find my folder. As my students got their backpacks, sweaters and other items settled and were taking their seats, I got their attention with my normal signal and asked, “Has anyone seen my bright yellow attendance folder?”

One helpful yet outspoken young third grader said, “Teacher, it’s tucked under your arm there.”

Sure enough, not wanting to misplace the folder, I had put it under my armpit as to free up my hands for collecting homework, notes and announcements that came my way. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I thanked my kind student and acknowledged my small mistake overlooking it quickly and moved on. After all, we all make mistakes, even teachers and setting an example in front of the 30 youngsters that we learn from our mistakes but we forgive and forget and forge on was a valuable lesson

Another teacher told me she had goofed now and then also and sometimes you are just tired and get careless. She was getting her first grade students ready to go home and lining up bussers, walkers and those who stayed after school for daycare into different lines. She was rushing and picked up a sweater she had found haphazardly. “Class, whose sweater is this?” she chimed in her loud friendly voice.

A little boy’s voice softly told her as he got closer, “Uhhh, Mrs. Smith, that’s your sweater.” She felt silly but brushed it off saying “thank you” to him.

Mistakes happen and they don’t just happen to old folks even though we aren’t as sharp as we used to be. A good thing to do is just acknowledge your errors and move forward.

Another teacher and I had a deal to timeout any students in each other’s class, if any were repeatedly misbehaving. We would send over a note with the student and have that kid sit by us at an extra timeout desk we had set up for a period of time. This teacher and I also liked the old “Little Rascal’s” movies, especially the ones with the adorable kind young teacher they had ironically named “Miss Crabapple” or “Crabby”. She was far from being crabby which made it all the funnier. We even took up the habit of calling one another “Crabby”. As we passed in the office or went by taking our class to PE or recess we would yell out, “Hey, Crabby!” to one another.

One day I was absent and a crotchety older teacher who had retired was subbing for me unbeknownst to my teacher friend. This older retired teacher had a reputation for being strict and grumpy in the 30 years she had taught. My teacher friend sent over a student of hers for a timeout with a note that explained, “Crabby- please timeout Devon for 15 minutes. Thanks.”

When I returned the next day my friend had found out that the “Crabby” note had gone to the grumpy old substitute teacher and told me about it. We both had a laugh but also felt badly for the sub. The older sub lady had never said anything about the note so maybe she had shrugged it off or understood my friend hadn’t been calling her a crabby teacher but meant the note for me.

Over twenty years later we still laugh about the mistake with the Crabby note going to the wrong person and now that I am retired, I often go visit school where I taught and did testing for over 30 years. My friend, who is much younger than me, sees me across campus sometimes and yells out, “Hi, Crabby!” and I yell back, “Hey, Crabby!” We still like the old story about the day I wasn’t at school and we still like the Little Rascals.