The revolt...

Arise, go forth and conquer.  ~Tennyson

Never underestimate the power of good that eight year olds can do to protect one of their own.

As I touched on in a earlier blog, I have always been blessed with the gift of friends.  Including boyfriends.  By the time we reached third grade, Jordan and I were best friends.  We were serious too.  We often innocently kissed on the lips, and THAT my friends, is serious.

We were always inventing new games the other kids loved, so we had a large circle of friends.  And we would soon need each other to "play a much different game" eight year olds shouldn't have had to "play."

I only ever had one bad teacher...and she was BAD.  Her name was Miss Peebles...and she was old as hell.  And mean.

Miss Peebles apparently did not like children who were different.  And I became her prime target.

The worse, most humiliating thing she did aside from the verbal abuse, was to constantly line us up from tallest to shortest for everything...recess, going to lunch, going to the restroom...everything.  So you can guess who was always last, right?

What is so amazingly touching is how my classmates responded to this...

One day at the merry-go-round, where Richard gathered us all, he said, "Who doesn't like what Peebles is doing to Adelaide?"  Everyone raised their hands.

"Okay, we have got to do something."

"But what?" said Debbie.  "We're only kids."

"Yeah, who is going to listen to us?" said Saundra.

 Mike asked, "What if she's a witch or something?"

We all certainly agreed she was something that rhymed with witch.

Then Jordan had an idea... 

"We're gonna tell our parents, and keep telling them till they do something."

"That's right," said Richard.  "Adelaide is our friend and we have to help."

WOW...talk about the power of friendship, and a bunch of eight year olds who cared!

And they all DID talk to their parents.  Then those parents began talking to the Principal and even the school board.

Since Miss Peebles was going to retire after the school year anyway, she was made to "retire" much sooner.  A substitute teacher was brought in, and what a difference!

The most important difference?  NOT lining up from tallest to shortest anymore.

This could have been another very dark memory of my childhood, but it wasn't...all because my eight year old classmates took a brave stand on my behalf.  

Now THAT is yet another treasure I hold very dearly, my friends.