We never needed armed guards, we had Mrs. Ammon (standard:humor, 908 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Apr 07 2013	Views/Reads: 2505/1736	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I were watching television listening to a news report and I simply broke out into laughter.

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I were watching television
listening to a news report and I simply broke out into laughter. 

“What are you laughing at?” my wife asked. 

“I'm just thinking of Mrs. Ammon. When I went to school we didn't need
any armed guards, we had Mrs. Ammon and nobody crossed her.” 

The news report went on to say how they were trying to put armed guards
at every school in our country. I suppose that is a good idea, I do not 
know all the ins and outs of the politicalness of that report. 
Everything these days seems to have some kind of a political angle to 
it. Now that political angle is intruding itself into the public school 
system. 

This is all an attempt to protect our school children. I am all for
that. 

I was thinking, however, that when I was a youngster we did not need
that sort of thing. We had Mrs. Ammon and her infamous hickory stick. 
Very few people remember a time when a teacher had, as one of her tools 
for education, a hickory stick and knew how to wield it, and wield it 
they did. 

Somebody may ask how I know about that. Very simply. I am the product of
a teacher wielding the hickory stick. It is hard now to remember the 
occasion that called for the application of that hickory stick. 
Actually, there was more than one occasion calling for such teacher and 
student interaction. 

The old saying was that our teacher would apply the “Board of Education”
to the “Seat of Learning.” Believe me when I say, I earned a degree in 
that. 

Somebody will say, “Things have changed.” 

I will agree that things have changed, but most things have not changed
for the better. Back in “the day” when I was a member of the public 
education system, the teachers were in charge. A basic rule in our 
house prevailed, “If you get a paddling in school, you get a paddling 
at home.” It was assumed the teacher was right. 

I distinctly remember my first interaction with my teacher in this
regard. How can you forget such a thing? 

At that time, teachers were too busy to put up with any kind of fooling
around in a classroom. Do not get me wrong, my teacher made it fun most 
of the time. For the ones who, like me, took it too far, she knew how 
to stop it dead in its tracks. 

“Mr. Snyder,” the teacher would say in a very stern tone of voice. “Is
that you making all that noise?” I knew what was to follow. 

“Mr. Snyder, please go to the principal's office and I will join you
shortly.” 

Oh boy. Those familiar words bring back haunting memories of my visit to
the principal's office. You can be sure; Mrs. Ammon would not come into 
the principal's office, spank you and then go back to her class. On 
some occasions, I would have preferred her to spank me and get it over 
with. 

The first thing she had to do was explain to me why what I did was wrong
and disruptive to the class. Then, she had to explain to me how this 
paddling I was about to get was going to hurt her more than it did me. 

For the life of me, I could never figure out where it hurt her more than
it did me. I knew exactly where it hurt me and for the rest of the day 
it would be quite difficult for me to sit down in my chair. Not only 
did my posterior glow in pain, but the snickers of my fellow students 
were even worse. 

At the time of the application of the hickory stick, I really did not
like Mrs. Ammon. Looking back, I have a different perspective. I now 
know that she really had an interest in me as a person. She was trying 


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