The Children's Story (2 page)

“It took me weeks and weeks and weeks to say it right,” Mary said.

So the New Teacher explained what
allegiance
meant, “…so you are promising or pledging support to the flag and saying that it is much more important than
you
are. How can a flag be more important than a real live person?”

Johnny broke the silence. “But the next thing is—well, where it says ‘and to the republic for which it stands.’ That means it’s like a, like a…” He searched for the word and could not find it. “Like a well, sort of sign, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The real word is a
symbol.
” The New Teacher frowned. “But we don’t need a sign to remind us that we love our country, do we? You’re all good boys and girls. Do you need a sign to remind you?”

“What’s
remind
mean?” Mary asked.

“It means to make you remember. To make you remember that you’re all good boys and girls.”

The children thought about this and shook their heads.

Johnny put up his hand. “Its our flag,” he said fiercely. “We always pledge.”

“Yes,” the New Teacher said. “It
is
a very pretty one.” She looked at it a moment and then said, “I wish I could have a piece of it. If it’s so important, I think we should all have a piece of it. Don’t you?”

“I’ve a little one at home,” Mary said. “I could bring it tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Mary dear, but I just wanted a little piece of this one because its our own special classroom one.”

Then Danny said, “If we had some scissors we could cut a little piece off.”

“I’ve some scissors at home,” Mary said.

“There’s some in Miss Worden’s desk,” Brian said.

The New Teacher found the scissors and then they had to decide who would be allowed to cut a little piece off, and the New Teacher said that because today was Mary’s birthday (
How did you know that?
Mary asked herself, awed) Mary should be allowed to cut the piece off. And then they decided it would be very nice if they all had a piece. The flag is special, they thought, so if you have a piece, that’s better than having just to look at it, ’cause you can keep it in your pocket.

So the flag was cut up by the children and they were very proud that they each had a piece. But now the flagpole was bare and strange.

And useless.

The children pondered what to do with it, and the idea that pleased them most was to push it out of the window. They watched excitedly as the New Teacher opened the window and allowed them to throw it into the playground. They shrieked with excitement as they saw it bounce on the ground and lie there. They began to love this strange New Teacher.

When they were all back in their seats the New Teacher said, “Well, before we start our lessons, perhaps there are some questions you want me to answer. Ask me anything you like. That’s only fair, isn’t it, if I ask you questions?”

Mary said, after a silence, “We never get to ask our real teacher
any
questions.”

“You can always ask me anything. That’s the fair way. The new way. Try me.”

“What’s your name?” Danny asked.

She told them her name, and it sounded pretty.

Mary put up her hand. “Why do you wear those clothes? Well, its like a sort of uniform nurses wear.”

“We think that teachers should be dressed the same. Then you always know a teacher. It’s nice and light and easy to iron. Do you like the color?”

“Oh, yes,” Mary said. “You’ve got green eyes too.”

“If you like, children, as a very special surprise, you can all have this sort of uniform. Then you won’t have to worry about what you have to wear to school every day. And you’ll all be the same.”

The children twisted excitedly in their seats. Mary said, “But it’ll cost a lot, and my momma won’t want to spend the money ’cause we have to buy food and food is expen—Well, it sort of costs a lot of money.”

“They will be given to you. As a present. There’s no need to worry about money.”

Johnny said, “I don’t want to be dressed like that.”

“You don’t have to accept a present, Johnny. Just because the other children want to wear new clothes, you don’t have to,” the New Teacher said.

Johnny slunk back in his chair.
I’m never going to wear their clothes,
he said to himself.
I don’t care if I’m going to look different from Danny and Tom and Fred.

Then Mary asked, “Why was our teacher crying?”

“I suppose she was just tired and needed a rest. She’s going to have a long rest.” She smiled at them. “We think teachers should be young. I’m nineteen.”

“Is the war over now?” Danny asked.

“Yes, Danny, isn’t that wonderful! Now all your daddies will be home soon.”

“Did we win or did we lose?” Mary asked.

“We—that’s you and I and all of us—
we
won.”

“Oh!”

The children sat back happily.

Then Johnny’s hatred burst. “Where’s my dad? What’ve you done to my dad? Where’s my dad?”

The New Teacher got up from her seat and walked the length of the room and the children’s eyes followed her, and Johnny stood, knees of jelly. She sat down on his seat and put her hands on his shoulders, and his shoulders were shaking like his knees.

“He’s going to a school. Some grown-ups have to go to school as well as children.”

“But they took him away and he didn’t want to go.” Johnny felt the tears close and he fought them back.

The New Teacher touched him gently, and he smelled the youth and cleanness of her, and it was not the smell of home which was sour and just a little dirty. “He’s no different from all of you. You sometimes don’t want to go to school. With grown-ups it’s the same—just the same as children. Would you like to visit him? He has a holiday in a few days.”

“Momma said that Dad’s gone away for-ever!” Johnny stared at her incredulously. “He has a holiday?”

The New Teacher laughed. “She’s wrong, Johnny. After all, everyone who goes to school has holidays. That’s fair, isn’t it?”

The children shifted and rustled and watched. And Johnny said, “I can see him?”

“Of course. Your daddy just has to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts, and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It’s not right to want others to believe wrong thoughts, is it?”

“Well, no, I suppose not. But my dad never thought nothing bad.”

“Of course, Johnny. I said
wrong
thoughts—not
bad
thoughts. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s right to show grown-ups right thoughts when they’re wrong, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes,” Johnny said. “But what wrong thoughts did he have?”

“Just some grown-up thoughts that are old-fashioned. We’re going to learn all about them in class. Then we can share knowledge, and I can learn from you as you will learn from me. Shall we?”

“All right.” Johnny stared at her, perplexed. “My dad couldn’t have wrong thoughts. He just couldn’t…

Could he?”

“Well, perhaps sometime when you wanted to talk about something very important to your dad, perhaps he said, ‘Not now, Johnny, I’m busy,’ or, ‘We’ll talk about that tomorrow.’ That’s a bad thought—not to give you time when its important. Isn’t it?”

“Sure. But that’s what all grown-ups do.”

“My momma says that all the time,” Mary said.

And the other children nodded, and they wondered if all their parents should go back to school and unlearn bad thoughts.

“Sit down, Johnny, and we’ll start learning good things and not worry about grown-up bad thoughts. Oh, yes,” she said when she sat down at her seat again, brimming with happiness. “I have a lovely surprise for you. You’re all going to stay overnight with us. We have a lovely room and beds and lots of food, and we’ll all tell stories and have such a lovely time.”

“Oh, good,” the children said.

“Can I stay up till eight o’clock?” Mary asked breathlessly.

“Well, as it’s our first new day, we’ll all stay up to eight-thirty. But only if you promise to go right to sleep afterward.”

The children all promised. They were very happy. Jenny said, “But first we got to say our prayers. Before we go to sleep.”

The New Teacher smiled at her. “Of course. Perhaps we should say a prayer now. In some schools that’s a custom too.” She thought a moment, and the faces watched her. Then she said, “Let’s pray. But let’s pray for something very good. What should we pray for?”

“Bless Momma and Daddy,” Danny said immediately.

“That’s a good idea, Danny. I have one. Let’s pray for candy. That’s a good idea, isn’t it?”

They all nodded happily.

So, following their New Teacher, they all closed their eyes and steepled their hands together, and they prayed with her for candy.

The New Teacher opened her eyes and looked around disappointedly. “But where’s our candy? God is all-seeing and is everywhere, and if we pray, He answers our prayers. Isn’t that true?”

“I prayed for a puppy of my own lots of times, but I never got one,” Danny said.

“Maybe we didn’t pray hard enough. Perhaps we should kneel down like it’s done in church.”

So the New Teacher knelt and all the children knelt and they prayed very, very hard. But there was still no candy.

Because the New Teacher was disappointed, the children were very disappointed. Then she said, “Perhaps we’re using the wrong name.” She thought a moment and then said, “Instead of saying ‘God,’ lets say ‘Our Leader.’ Let’s pray to Our Leader for candy. Let’s pray very hard and don’t open your eyes till I say.”

So the children shut their eyes tightly and prayed very hard, and as they prayed, the New Teacher took out some candy from her pocket and quietly put a piece on each child’s desk. She did not notice Johnny—alone of all the children—watching her through his half-closed eyes.

She went softly back to her desk and the prayer ended, and the children opened their eyes and they stared at the candy and they were overjoyed.

“I’m going to pray to Our Leader every time,” Mary said excitedly.

“Me too,” Hilda said. “Could we eat Our Leader’s candy now, teacher?”

“Oh, let’s, please, please, please.”

“So Our Leader answered your prayers, didn’t he?”

“I saw you put the candy on our desks!” Johnny burst out. “
I saw you
… I didn’t close my eyes, and I saw you. You had ’em in your pocket. We didn’t get them with praying.
You
put them there.”

All the children, appalled, stared at him and then at their New Teacher. She stood at the front of the class and looked back at Johnny and then at all of them.

“Yes, Johnny, you’re quite right. You’re a very, very wise boy. Children,
I
put the candy on your desks. So you know that it doesn’t matter whom you ask, whom you shut your eyes and ‘pray’ to—to God or anyone, even Our Leader—no one will give you anything. Only another human being.” She looked at Danny. “God didn’t give you the puppy you wanted. But if you work hard, I will. Only I or someone like me can
give
you things. Praying to God or anything or anyone for something is a waste of time.”

“Then we don’t say prayers? We’re not supposed to say prayers?”

The puzzled children watched her.

“You can if you want to, children. If your daddies and mommies want you to. But we know, you and I, that it means nothing. That’s our secret.”

“My dad says it’s wrong to have secrets from him.”

“But he has secrets that he shares with your mommy and not with you, doesn’t he?”

All the children nodded.

“Then it’s not wrong for us to have a few secrets from them. Is it?”

“I like having secrets. Hilda and me have lots of secrets,” Mary said.

The New Teacher said, “We’re going to have lots of wonderful secrets together. You can eat your candy if you want to. And because Johnny was especially clever, I think we should make him monitor for the whole week, don’t you?”

They all nodded happily and popped the candy into their mouths and chewed gloriously. Johnny was very proud as he chewed his candy; he decided that he liked his teacher very much. Because she told the truth. Because she was right about fear. Because she was right about God. He’d prayed many times for many things and never got them, and even the one time he did get the skates, he knew his dad had heard him and had put them under his bed for his birthday and pretended he hadn’t heard him.
I always wondered why He didn’t listen, and all the time He wasn’t there,
he thought.

Johnny sat back contentedly, resolved to work hard and listen and not to have wrong thoughts like Dad.

The teacher waited for them to finish their candy. This was what she had been trained for, and she knew that she would teach her children well and that they would grow up to be good citizens. She looked out of the window, at the sun over the land. It was a good land, and vast. A land to breathe in. But she was warmed not by the sun but by the thought that throughout the school and throughout the land all children, all men and all women were being taught with the same faith, with variations of the same procedures. Each according to his age group. Each according to his need.

She glanced at her watch…

It was 9:23.