I was talking to my wife's 94 year old grandfather, and he told me of a time when he was in grade 9 in 1935. He had been told to clean the school house after school for drawing a picture on the blackboard. He was also scheduled to be strapped the next day for his defiant act of drawing.
After cleaning the school house, it was 5 o'clock in the evening and everyone else had gone home for supper. Bennie went looking through the teacher's desk, knowing that he would find the three school house straps. And because he would be the next of many recipients, he took the straps home.
For whatever reason, the school never replaced the straps, and no student ever, that Bennie could remember, received the strap again.
Should Bennie have stolen the straps?
If Bennie had been caught, what would have been done to him?
Bennie's actions were subserive - and rightfully so. His deviance to the establishment saved not only his own ass but countless others.
If we don't ever break the rules or refuse our cooperation, nothing will ever change.
I just read this post to Bennie and he laughed and said: "You know that's a fact. I stopped corporal punishment right then and there for us."
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