Nanna's School Story

• Stephanie Maurer, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

"Nan, can you tell me a story about something that happened to you when you were little?"

"Ok then did I ever tell you... what my teacher did to the kids when I was at school?" my nan asked, as we sat at the kitchen bench.

"No," I replied, intrigued.

"Well when I was in year three we had a teacher whose name was Mr Sandson, and he was a cruel teacher. He had a cane that he would keep on top of his desk. One day he had written a paragraph on the board that we had to copy into our books. Now back then we didn't have pens we only had a quill and inkwell. Anyway, when I had finished writing I had accidentally smudged the last word.

We all lined up at the side of his desk to ready to hand in our work, with the cane in his hand ready to pick on every little thing we did wrong. There was a little German girl in front of me who had missed a full stop. So up came the cane and it went 'WHACK' straight across the back of her shoulder blades. It cut through her dress and into her skin as well. She started to cry so he stopped, he would always stop when the girls cried. Then it was my turn and as soon as he had seen that I smudged the last word, he grabbed the cane, smiled and made me turn around and then 'CRACK' straight across my calf muscles, over and over again. But I was determined not to cry. So with every hit it got harder and harder. When the bell rang I went home did my homework, had dinner with my parents as I usually did. The next morning I got up with some difficulty as I looked down to see my legs swollen, up to about twice the size. When I finally waddled my way out to the kitchen and I saw the look on my parents faces I knew I had some explaining to do. So I told them what the teacher had done. And as you could imagine Dad was furious. So he called my Uncle Charlie and some of his mates who were all at least six foot four and pure muscle.

When they heard the state I was in they all got on their horses and rode straight for the school. They met outside the parking lot, then made their way down the road around the corner. They lined up across the road, sitting boldly on their horses just waiting for Mr Sandson to come along. About ten minutes later he drove up in his old silver car, and was brought to an abrupt stop, as he spotted the intimidating men on their horses blocking his path.

They swiftly demounted their horses and in a threatening manner stormed toward his puny car. They made him get out and threatened that if he EVER used the cane on another child they would come back and give him a taste of his own medicine.

They said, "Let's see how you like that!"

And believe it or not you never saw him with a cane in his hand again. He actually became a really nice teacher."

"WOW, I would hate to have him as a teacher," I stated.

"Yes, but he never did it again which was the point of their little 'chat.'"