Middle school graduation. My granddaughter. That is what the graduation speaker said. Get in trouble.
He was one of their teachers. He recalled that they had walked out of school in seventh grade. They did it again in eighth grade. For good causes. For causes their parents supported. With their parents permission.
He acknowledged. He did not really mean get into trouble. Not necessarily. He meant find things about which you feel passionately. Do what you can to achieve what you believe in. If you want it enough, be willing to get into trouble. Get arrested, even. He did not add. But you could hear it anyhow. With your parents permission.
I taught middle school kids. Junior high school actually. From 1965 through 1969. There were issues about which kids felt passionately. Civil Rights. The Vietnam War.
The school principal wore a PT 109 pin. A big Kennedy supporter. A passionate Kennedy supporter. JFK. He would not forget him. He believed in the Kennedys.
The first year I taught there. Maybe the second. Well before Bobby Kennedy was challenging Lyndon Johnson on the war. Some kids, eighth and ninth graders, came to school and started to leave. Maybe a dozen. They were going to Boston to protest against the Vietnam War.
Their passion bumped into the principal’s passion. He was furious. He called their parents. He probably thought about calling the cops. He did what he could to keep those kids in school. He did what he could to get those kids who were leaving into trouble.
In reality, the country was in trouble.