SCHOOL AND ILLNESS

Today we are babysitting our eight year old granddaughter, Grace, because she was ill and throwing up. I have had lots of experience with this issue having attended public school, ( known germ factories) having had both my sons attend public schools for 12 years each, and having taught in the public schools for 30 years.  

As a child, I lived in a very poorly constructed and poorly sealed home where there were many flies and other creatures abiding with us.  We could not afford great health care and , for the most part, health care in the 40's and 50's certainly was not what it is today.  Consequently many of us went to school with the "Sniffles."  Those sniffles were frequently accompanied by fever and coughing, a very bad combination.  We had lots of cold but my mother insisted in sending us off to school.  The fact that she was, what at the time was called, a housewife may have had something to do with it.  I was involved so much in sports that I wanted to go to school and to practice.  With the exception of football, I enjoyed practice very much.  So off I went to contaminate other little runny nosed brats.  

I suppose that it would behoove us all to keep our children out of school when they are ill to try not to spread the germs around.  Many doctors have told me that colds and flu are not caused by cold weather other than getting chilled and lowering our resistance. We get colds and flu primarily because we stay inside in sealed buildings with other people who have the viruses, etc and have close contact to the germs. 

Having said that, my older son never missed a day of school from the beginning of the fourth grade through the day he graduated from Male Traditional High school.  There were days when I suggested that he stay home but he insisted on going and so he did.  He was recognized on his graduation for the feat.  My second son was not so bull headed about this. He missed probably less than most students but certainly was not recognized for perfect attendance. 

Brian may have taken after me a little in going to school when maybe we should have not.  I hated missing days as a teacher because I had to leave very detailed lesson plans. In fact, I left two sets of lesson plans in case the substitute had some specific training in the subject and wanted to teach, (that happened once in 30 years) and another if he or she wanted to babysit.  Consequently I would give desk assignments and then need to grade the darn thing when I returned.  If I were off one day, I had 150 assignments to grade, plus having to deal with the school principal and his/her assistants about any discipline problems that had come up, or because of bad classroom management by the sub.  I always left a copy of the roll , but in almost every case the sub would have the students sign a sheet of paper.  You would not believe how many students I had named Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, and Daisy or Daffy Duck. The sub day student I had the most, however was the ubiquitous Ben Dover. He attended almost all of my classes on sub days.  

Another reason that I often came to school as a teacher is that of being cheap, I didn't want to use all my sick days because I knew I got a payback when I retired and it raised the rate of my retirement rate.  We were allowed 10 sick days a year that would be carried over each year until retirement.  When I retired in 2000, even with staying home with a sick kid a few times a year, I had accumulated almost 200 sick days, and that gave me a much better yearly salary in retirement.  I had student often ask if I ever missed school and was a bit hurt when they were disappointed when I answered no.  I got the impression that they didn't like me.

One day I came to school feeling just fine but by the end of first period I was beginning to feel very queezy and began to throw up but very little at a time.  I would leave the room and take my trash can and throw up into the trash can.  When I tied the plastic insert and put in the large trash can in the hall, I was pleased to find that there were a number of other plastic trash can liners folded in the bottom of the can.  During the first period class, Principal, John Locke, announced we had enough teacher absences that there were not enough subs to cover them and if any teacher would like to earn some extra money they could cover some of these for extra pay so I did not have the neave to tell him I needed to go home.  

I threw up about twice a class and finally a group of my students told Mr Locke about and he made me go home and covered my classes.  They ratted me out.  It was a great thing that they did because I no sooner entered my house but I hastened to the bathroom and spent most of the rest of the afternoon and early evening bowing to the porcelain throne.  The next morning I felt fine and thanked Mr Locke for making me go home, and, since we did not have to call a sub it did not count against me as a sick day.  Boy, how cheap am I?  

The most amazing thing to me was that in thirty years of teaching, I had only one student throw up in my class and Cindy only did a little as was befitting her very small frame. I was truly blessed.  I also had a student, on a very hot day, faint in her desk and lean her head against my hip because I was standing next to her.  I was almost relieved that the heat was the reason because I didn't want to deal with another reason for her to do that.  At Manual I sent a kid to the bathroom and after he did not come back for a while sent another boy to check on him and he had passed out on the bathroom floor.  A bit inglorious, for sure but boths students were fine.

All-in-all I had a remarkable career with the best students anyone could ask for.  

Thanks you, folks.