66 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
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°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°THE PRINCESS VS. THE PRINCIPAL°°°°°°°°°Marc Perkel
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ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
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Being an asshole is a valuable asset and last year I had the
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opportunity to pass the skill on to my daughter. She was in the
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eighth grade and had a Home Economics teacher who was picking on
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her. Jessica is a good kid and makes good grades. When I was in
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the eighth grade I had a teacher who picked on me and that's the
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year I learned how to stand up to the system. Now it was her turn.
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We've always encouraged her to make her own decisions and accept
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responsibility for those decisions. The rules were that if she
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somehow managed to drop the class that she would get an "F" for the
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year in that class. She wanted out so bad that she was willing to
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accept the F. I figured that if she wanted out that bad that I would
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support her decision.
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We set up a meeting with the teacher and the principal. As we drove
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to the school I told Jessica that I was prepared to go a lot further
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towards getting her out of the class than the school was to keep her
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in, and I warned her that being the asshole I am that people were
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likely to get angry and that she was going to see her principal in a
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way that she's never seen him before.
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We walked in and sat down. I informed them that Jessica had made a
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decision to drop the class. They asked her why and she explained a
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few events that happened. The teacher gave her side of the story
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and after about a minute I could see why Jessica wanted out of her
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class.
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We made it clear that Jessica understood that she would fail the
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class. They started negotiating from the perspective that she was
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going to stay in and that we were in the process of "working it
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out." I said that I didn't think they were hearing what I was
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saying. They assured me that they did. I said, "No, you don't
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understand. We are not here to work things out. Jessica had made
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the decision that she is dropping the class and is willing to take
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the F. So she's outta here."
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At that point the principal threw a fit, slapping his hands on the
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table and stomping out of the room. We got up and left and met him
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in the hall. He was already coming to grips with it and apologized.
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He said he thought she was making the wrong decision. I said,
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"Perhaps so. But it's her wrong decision to make." He then said
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that perhaps she wasn't old enough to make that kind of decision, to
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which I replied, "Perhaps not. But that's my wrong decision to
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make."
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"But", he said, "She has to learn that sometimes you have to give
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into authority," to which I replied that she has to learn that
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sometimes she doesn't have to give into authority. Thus, Jessica
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got a good real life lesson in the fine art of being an asshole.
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Maybe someday she'll write a song about it called, "Momma, don't let
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your babies grow up to be Wussies."
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-end-
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Reprinted with permission from:
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Thinking Magazine (TM) Issue #22
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Editor Marc Perkel
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Computer Tyme
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411 North Sherman, Suite 300
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Springfield MO. 65802
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417-866-1222 voice 417-866-0135 fax 417-866-1665 bbs 71333,427 CIS
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