i taught religion from the age of 13-17 and i forgot about it almost entirely until i saw one of my students at friendly's last night. he had been a 6th grader at the time and now he was probably 20. my brother was with me when i saw him and then i was forced to recount all the stories from my experiences as a teacher to him. in that age bracket we hated each other and still to this day know virtually nothing about one another's lives from 1993-1998.

i had been teaching the 1st grade catechism (that's catholicism for those of you who don't know) class for 2 years when the director asked me to take on the 6th grade class as well. i was 15 at the time. i thought i was too young to be teaching these kids, seeing as i was only 4 years older than them, but he saw no problem so i did it. i myself was only in 11th grade and thought i would go out of my way to be "the cool teacher". on the first day of 6th grade catechism i started the class saying something like this: "i'm going to be your teacher and we are going to have a great year. in my class you will have no homework, you will be allowed to chew gum, and should you decide you need to use any language- including curse words- that is fine by me". the 11 year olds were astounded. but in my way of thinking, i had been not doing my homework, chewing gum and cursing since well before 3rd grade and this was more than their privilege. i think the children thought i was kidding until i said something to the effect of "you know we all have fuckin stress in our life, let's make learning about god fun!" from then on, they loved me.

so things were going swimmingly over there in ccd on monday nights and i had even gotten a reputation as the best teacher of 6th grade. my students (and no i did not let them cheat) had better grades than another other class combined and specific students in my class who, throughout the years, had never gotten higher than a 30 on a test were now getting 100's. students who were "troublesome" or "failing" from other classes got moved into my class and slowly but surely i had to break the new kids into our lax classroom atmosphere. my class was expanding but i didn't care. i would throw out the lesson plans my director gave me and give my kids index cards with inspirational quotes on them and then we'd have discussions about them. i would let them sing the hail mary, instead of reciting it. i was awesome.

until.

my director pulled me aside one day with a stern look on his face. "laura" he started "i got a call from a parent about what's going on in your class". "oh?" i asked looking shocked. i wasn't shocked. my classroom was filled with songs and quotes, but words like fuck and shit too.
"this parent told me that there is some vulgar language being used in your classroom. that you are allowing it"

"well, yes" i said "i don't believe in censorship and i feel the children should be allowed to express themselves"

"you're teaching them religion. right and wrong. you can't let them curse laura"

i told him i wouldn't. smiled and walked in my classroom. when i was sure he was gone i looked at the class with a devil grin and said
"well guess what? because one of you fuckin kids ratted me out, we can't curse anymore. i thought everyone understand that i was trying to create a safe environment for you where you didn't have to feel trapped while learning. well. if any of you are feeling stifled and censored for the rest of the year blame it on the baby who told him mommy, now open to page 22!"

2004-12-02, 8:46 p.m.
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