Punched in the Stomach by a Teacher

Darwin is learning furiously now and he’s passionate about it.  He would rather me read a non-fiction book about animals than read Thomas the Tank Engine books now.  Last night we learned about Reptiles and Amphibians.  And whenever we go on a walk I try to teach him about the flora we see, often having to look it up myself first.  There’s a lot of different trees and flowers aren’t there?  And I’ve realised I don’t know the foggiest about trees.  I can spot an oak, a horse chestnut and a weeping willow but beyond that I haven’t a clue.  We watched a tractor collecting silage from the fields the other night, it was lovely, and we learned about silage.  I feel so privileged to be living where we do.

A teacher at his school commented saying that she often has to look things up during the evening to make sure she knows about the stuff Darwin is talking about.  The oceans and continents are his thing at the moment.

Going off at a tangent, but still talking about school, I was talking to some friends the other morning and recalling an incident that happened at my school.  During a history lesson one morning we were taken on a little walk into the town to look at some old houses in Leyland.  Mr Willoughby gathered us around in a small group and began telling us some interesting facts about the houses.  But we were out of school, all a little giddy and our minds were on other things.  Gary Gallagher was stood next to me and he was easy to make laugh, and I liked making people laugh.  As Mr Willoughby spoke I would whisper to Gaz and he would laugh uncontrollably whilst I remained straight faced.  Mr Willoughby had had enough of his fact telling not being taken seriously and said to Gaz, “Gallagher, one more peep out of you and there’ll be trouble”.  I saw this as a challenge.  After a few moments had past I once again whispered to Gaz and again he began to laugh.  Suddenly the kids parted as Mr Willoughby charged through and delivered a swift punch to Gary Gallagher’s abdomen.  Gaz fell to the floor winded.

Times were different back then.  Nowadays a teacher would be sacked on the spot and punished by the law however at that time Gaz didn’t even tell his parents because he knew he would get punished again for messing about and causing the teacher to strike him so.