Time Out For Talking

For grades first, second, and third, my teacher was Mrs. Flower, the first black woman to teach at Fremont Elementary school. There must have been a teacher shortage because I had been there for two years, but in middle of the third year, all of us third graders were given a new teacher, and Mrs. Flower returned to teaching only first grade. While she was black, her class was all Hmong, and she was the only teacher for the Hmong students still learning English. As a result, I and other Hmong students shifted from Mrs. Flower's classes to the new 3rd grade teacher and then back again by the end of the school day. Despite three years of instruction by her, Mrs. Flower's never really knew me as separate from the other Hmong girls.

One day Mrs. Flower had difficulty quieting the class for instruction, so she commanded all students to sit down on the floor. The teacher instructed everyone to be quiet, but as she surveyed the classroom, she picked me out for too much talking. I got a punished with a 30 minute "time out" at my desk, where I had to put down my head. Later, she came to me privately and added to the punishment the job of writing 100 sentences--I will not talk during the class. To tell the truth, I was actually not the student who was talking. I must have turned my head to confuse Mrs. Flower, but it was a girl seated next to me who kept on chattering. Later, when the sentence punishment was awarded, I tried to claim innocence, but it was too late. I was pegged as a girl talking out of turn.

After school for three days, I struggled to write what I never had before--100 sentences. Suddenly writing became a boring and repetitive task. I learned from this punishment not only to not talk in class, but also to not do anything that the teacher didn't like. Despite the teacher's error in punishing me for doing something I hadn't done, I still forgave Mrs. Flower because she was overall a very nice teacher. Strangely, I did in that exercise learn to write quickly by hand, and I still like to write.