So, anything new in Wisconsin lately?
I’m kidding, of course. The last few days have been dominated with coverage about Governor Walker’s budget repair bill. I’m sure that all the local news stations are thrilled that the Packers’ season is over and that there is no unusual weather to report; otherwise, I’m sure they’d have quite the dilemma as to what to cover.
But it doesn’t just stop there. Wisconsin has found fame in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even on CNN.
And while the nation watches these historic events unfold, I find myself thinking back to “Mr. Leonard,” a substitute teacher I met seventeen years ago when I was student teaching in a Milwaukee middle school.
My cooperating teacher’s mother had passed away overseas and thus was absent for a week. Enter Mr. Leonard, an imposing tyrant of a substitute teacher. He actually didn’t have too much to do, since I was already teaching three of my cooperating teacher’s five classes. While I taught, he read the newspaper. In the other two classes, though, while I was preparing lessons or observing, Mr. Leonard was in charge and seemed to take an unusual delight in bullying adolescents.
One day, a 6th grader named “Tyler” forgot to bring his math book to class, as 6th graders are prone to doing occasionally. Mr. Leonard demanded – in all seriousness – that Tyler write the sentence “I will bring my math book to class” 200 times for the next day. Tyler, incredulous, was obviously upset and questioned the punishment. Mr. Leonard saw this inquiry as a breach of his authority and increased the number of sentences to 500.
Even though I was a 22-year-old college student with very little teaching experience, and it wasn’t even one of my classes, I knew that the way Mr. Leonard had handled that situation was all kinds of wrong. Later that day, I went to the principal, explained the situation and my awkward position of non-authority. I’m not sure what happened in the interim, but while Mr. Leonard was back the next day – fortunately, his last – Tyler returned sans 500 sentences in hand with no repercussions.
Why did this come back to me all of a sudden? Because it was about basic respect. Because Tyler was the David up against a Goliath of a substitute teacher who seemed to be on a power trip, not unlike the scenes being played out in Madison right now. The difference is, when it was just about a missing math book, the problems to be solved and the answers were a lot easier.
I don’t envy our governor or our legislators; they have tough decisions ahead of them. I only ask that everyone involved remembers that “lost causes” are often the ones that matter most.
