Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-18
"FRAMIN' DE KIDS"

"Look out, youse she'll getcha framed! p was the ex-
clamation OF a small tenyear-old to his pal across the
aisle. The 'she" mentioned was his teacher. 1t took me a long
finally get it. Wrath at the injustice of it still stirs me.
Now Alec did not come from one of the best families
and his manners were not Chesterfeldian, nor was his heart
warm and afectionate. He had come up where courtesy did
not flourish, and where the sweetness of sympathy and ten
dernesS was unknown. Kicks and harsh blows and harsher
words were the order of every day. So, of course, Alec's lit
tie teacher thought Alec simply tough. He was. She naturally
had trouble with Alec, a great deal of trouble, and not employ
ing the familiar methods of reasoning with him by various
kinds of brutality, she found him perfectly impossible. If you
have ever been a teacher, you will understand the rest. A
restless roomful of children, due to Alecs penchant for
creating a disturbance, and always the fear in the teachers
heart of a possible riot and her own inability to quel 1t.
Many a weary teacher has such a nightmare haunting her
sleeping hours, when she can't get hold of the Alecs.
For the sake of our argument, let us say that finally, at
the beginning of the second half Of the school year, the teach
er does begin to feel that she has a slight hold on Alec. Fer
haps, like some rare teachers that | have known, she goes to
see .Alec's mother, and finds the home so deplorable and SO
hostile to everything that is wholesome or good or beautiful
that she feels she has had a real vision, and that Alec is a
poor victim of misfortune. She changes her attitude toward
him, and gets results.
Now all that is splendid. But at the end of the year, when
Alec gets promoted, the teacher, being human, which
may mean that she is a little weak, finds out that Alec IS
promoted into Miss VS. room. She happens to have lunch
with Miss V.
ooh, Miss "" she says, you're going to have a prize
next year in Alec So And Miss V looks up inquiringy to
Now the first teacher, who really has become very fond Of
Alec, but who also feels a certain thrill OF pride because sne
has succeeded with such a hard case, goes back to her early
struggles with Alec, and paints him eloquently as the original
Pecks bad boy. She really doesn't mean to ~exaggerate, but
a few high colors do add to the effect of the story, and know,
and Miss V is such an interested listener. So she drinks IN all
this terrifying narrative of Alec and his evil ways, and thnks'
'Heaven's. if I get a chance to marry a junk man during
the summer. III do it, just to escape Alec!'
But either the junk man proves disappointing on closer
acquaintance, or the thought of her pay day in September
grows increasingly seductive, or she gets to anticipating her
lob because she loves it, and she goes back to school to lind
Alec sitting in a back seat, already making himself popular
with his n%eighbors.
All this terrible struggle of his preceding teacher comes
back to Miss V with a rush and instinctively she IS on the
defensive, looking for probable trouble.
Now in perfect justice to Miss Y, l must say thaC sue
doesn't realize that her impression of Alec Is gong TO MAKE
her 90 through all the very same difficulties that hr preue-
cessor has experienced. But she expects a certain attltuoe
from Alec. and she gets it. That is perfectly good psyehoiogyj
isn't it?'
But Alec is aggrieved, and naturally he feels that ne
CANT cot no show or that SHE "got him framed: he
resnonds to what the new teacher expects OF nm, ana gives
her a nightmare of a school year.
The sad part of it is, that the teacher would nave given
Alec a fair chance and he probably would have made good II
+be first teachers love of conversation and her ability TO make
a good story out of very little material,-and perhaps nr W
personal vanity in recounting the tale OF HEX SOoGE1o'
hadn't gotten the better of her discretion. She Wouid o
Mortified if she realized that she was simply pushing te clutcn-
inc fingers of a drowning boy off from the boat tnat is Eeep.
inc him afloat. But the boy gets the injustice OF II! u
a school boy for that.
And this little habit of passing on to the next teacher
all the faults Of her incoming pupils he very REASONABLY cans
''framin' de kids" L wonder IL lie 5 rsn''