Fast Fiction: A Lesson For Teacher
"Two youths were shunting an old man backwards and forwards...'' Should the teacher intervene? Richard Mallinson's story focuses on a contemporary dilema.
One night after doing some late duties at school I took a short cut home across a piece of waste ground in the town.
Two youths were shunting an old man backwards and forwards.
‘Stop that,’ I shouted.
‘Pipe down you,’ said one of the youths.
The shunting went on.
‘Look,’ I said, ‘he’s terrified.’
‘Shut it,’ said the other youth.
They were using more force now. The old man’s head jerked alarmingly. His body sagged and his arms flapped.
I said to the first youth, ‘What if it was your own grandfather?’
‘I’d kick the bugger down,’ he said promptly.
The old man’s glasses fell off and the second youth stamped on them.
‘And what about you?’ I asked.
‘I ain’t got no grandpa,’ he said.
‘Now you listen to me,’ I said, ‘the police will get you if you don’t stop.
They stopped and the old man flopped down. Then he managed to stand up, blinking and staring.
‘Bugger off,’ said the first youth. The old man stumbled away.
‘Now,’ said the same youth, ‘we can teach this sod a lesson.’
‘Teaching is my job, not yours,’ I snapped.
‘Oh you silly stupid prat,’ said the second youth and smashed me in the eye with his fist and I went down, hurt and shocked.
Later a tall police officer said, ‘I don’t think we handled that situation very well, did we sir?’ and I retorted angrily, ‘Now don’t you take that patronising bloody tone with me young man.’
Then I saw that it was ‘Lanky’ Jackson, once a pupil of mine, and at that moment I wasn’t sure which was hurting the more, my eye or my pride.
