I was a Student Teacher at Holy Family Catholic School in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Yep, a nice Jewish boy who just wanted to experience the ways and means of a Parochial School, and to learn about the environment of a section of Pittsburgh I actually only passed through as a youth; and never knew much about, except what I saw in the passenger seat of my car. The Mother Superior was delighted to include me. (This was 1968, and I had a beard, mustache, long hair down to my shoulders, and the Mother Superior, winked and whispered to me, I had a visual look similar to Jesus.) I taught third grade, and was basically the only male educator, with the exception of the Priests who provided the religious texts once a week.
Everything about the school was urban, from the bricks and mortar built back in the early 1900s to the cement fenced-in area which was referred to as the playground. (This area was as large as a tennis court, surrounded by fencing and one or two rusting slides. The students honestly could do very little during recess, primarily because cement does not provide for having fun, and mostly because the Sisters whose job it had been to guard the playground, had only one nerve left, and if it got too noisy, that nerve culminated in whistles being blown, large rods being smacked against the chain link, and clapping of the hands! So I have been a camp counselor and a youth worker, paying for my education; needed to step in and do something. I asked the Mother Superior if I could become the Gym Teacher. She hemmed and hawed, gave it a week to think it over; but finally agreed to let me be the Gyn teacher for the two Third Grade Classes only. My kids were delighted. I recalled all my Gym Class lessons as a student at my elementary school and used those experiences for my lesson plans. Fun was had by all, a release of childhood energy was expended, and the rest of the afternoon was an easier time.
BUT, this idea of freedom, and noise, and boys and girls exercising or playing at the same time, became a bit too much; and sadly the majority of the Nuns felt I was disrespectful of the decorum of the school. The Mother Superior, called me in her office, apologized, saying my heart was in the right place, my intentions were genuine, my spirit high…BUT all of this was a change and changed too fast.
I thought about my days at Holy Family Catholic Church, as I read the responses, the negative actions by the Republicans who seem to want to stymie any progress in the quality of lives of Americans, and who indeed say that Voting Rights/Civil Rights/First Amendment Rights might be good intentions, but by even hinting at them provides a CHANGE that somehow is not the right decorum for our nation. They watch the combustible energy of Americans grow and grow and grow knowing that eventually all of that power must be released, but instead of helping, say not now, too soon, and too fast. And as I did at Holy Family when I had to tell my kids, no more Gym Class, I feel sad, as I watch Americans being told no more FREEDOM FOR YOU!
