Throwing a Blackboard Eraser

[Quinn Cousins]

It wasn't by any means my most painful punishment, and it wasn't even a "spanking," but it's the one I remember with special fondness.

When my parents died just before I turned ten years old, I was sent to Catholic boarding school starting in the Fifth Grade. I was one of the smartest girls in the school and could probably easily have skipped at least one grade but I was poorly behaved, maybe because I was seeking attention, or whatever, so the nuns never promoted me beyond my age because of my "lack of maturity" as they called it. Although my grades were high enough for First Honors and sometimes even Distinguished Honors, until Seventh Grade I never made the Honor Roll because of my poor conduct grades.

This particular misconduct happened when I was twelve and in the Seventh Grade, just before Christmas of 1963. Our teacher that year (and the next also, because she followed us to Eighth Grade) was Sister Josephine, whom I liked very much and who liked me, and because of that I was on my way to an "A" in Self-Control and had grades good enough for First Honors for the semester.

The week before, some girls had been fooling around and playing catch with a blackboard eraser, and Sister was very angry and warned the entire class, "God help the next girl I catch throwing an eraser, because He'll be the only one who can."

That afternoon, Sister Josephine was late getting back from lunch for some reason, and another girl (whose name I don't remember) and I started playing catch with the eraser. The girls who were in the Marching Band practiced their instruments with the music teacher during lunch recess and usually got back a couple of minutes late after Sister was already there, but this afternoon Sister wasn't yet back when the "Band girls" came in the door, and the other girl hit one of them, a day-student named Frances Arkridge, who was probably the number one student in the class (and wasn't well-liked by most of the other girls). I had a secret respect for Francie but she never wanted anything to do with me, because she was afraid I'd get her in trouble, so I made fun of her a lot to my friends.

Francie picked up the eraser and was going to put it back on the chalk ledge when Sister Paul, the Fifth Grade teacher, came into the classroom and saw what was going on. The girl I'd really been fooling around with managed to get back to her desk and Sister blamed Francie and me for the disturbance.

I really felt embarrassed and tried to explain to Sister Paul that it wasn't Francie's fault, but all this got me was a slap across my face for "answering back" and Sister Paul made Francie and me kneel in the hallway outside the class and wait for Sister Josephine to get back.

When Sister Josephine started walking up the corridor, Sister Paul got hold of her and told her what had happened (or at least what Sister Paul thought had happened). Sister Josephine was really angry, partly I guess because she was a younger nun and was embarrassed that an older nun like Sister Paul had had to take over her classroom, and she made Francie and me both stand by her desk. Francie just stood there with her eyes down on the floor, but I told Sister Josephine it wasn't Francie's fault.

That's when Sister Josephine asked both of us whose fault it was, and I wouldn't say anything more since I never "told on" another girl. What surprised me was that Francie wouldn't name the other girl either, and then Sister took her heavy wooden ruler and made me hold my hand out, palm up, and she squeezed hold of my fingers really hard and painfully to hold my hand in place. She brought that ruler down with a slam that set my palm on fire and felt like a jolt of an electric shock all the way up my arm, and she asked me, "What do we use blackboard erasers for?" When I answered, "For erasing blackboards, Sister," she brought that ruler down again and asked, "And what do we never do with them?" I answered, "We never throw them around, Sister," and then she brought it down two more times and told me to give her my other hand.

There was another slam of that ruler to set my other hand on fire, and she asked, "Are you ever going to throw a blackboard eraser again, Miss Cousins?" and I answered, "No, Sister." Then Sister slammed that ruler down three more times while she said, "Then let this be a reminder to you," and when she was done she sent me to The Platform to sit on my hands.

The Platform was a ledge on the floor underneath the blackboard. It stuck out from the wall maybe not quite a foot-and-a-half or so and was about a foot high. It was something shorter girls could stand on to reach the top of the blackboard, and it was also The Platform you were made to stand on when you were being given any kind of a "shaming" punishment. Sitting on hands that had been licked four times each with that ruler was painful enough, and your knuckles dug into your heinie, which hurt even more. Since you were required to sit up straight, that really stretched your arms out too and made your shoulders sore and after a while made your neck and your back really achy from the stretching.

Then Sister Josephine gave Francie the same punishment she'd just given me, and I really felt guilty that Francie was being punished for something what just wasn't her fault at all. I also felt really ashamed of that other girl, whose name I don't remember, who I thought was a friend of mine but just sat there and watched us get punished for something that was her fault and mine, but not Frances Arkridge's.

We had to sit there on our hands like that all afternoon, and on top of that we took a ZERO in all the work for that afternoon, including a very important Science test, which would have knocked Francie off the Honors Roll and would have given me a failing grade in Science for the semester. Then, for homework, we each had to write a 300-word definition of a blackboard eraser.

I wrote my 300 words and then added an explanation of what happened and how it wasn't Frances Arkridge's fault but that I couldn't "tell on" any other girl. It turned out that Francie also added something about how it wasn't my fault but that another girl had hit her, but that she couldn't tell who that girl was unless I did first.

Sister Josephine was really the nicest teacher I ever had, and she must have been impressed with our punishment essays, because she decided to give us a chance to "make-up" that Science test. What she did, though, was give us an extremely difficult project that we had to do together over the Christmas holiday (it involved some trigonometry, which was way too advanced for just about anyone except Francie), but working together we both managed to get our Science grades pulled up enough for Francie to make First Honors and for me to make Second Honors. It also made Francie and me friends, which is another story.