Random reminder

Press, 17 November 1980, Page 34

Random reminder

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The temporary misplacement of children by teachers is far niore common than anxious - parents might realise; not losing children, you understand, just an unplanned withdrawal for several moments in time of a’pupil unit from the vital teacher-child learning interface. One short in the, er,' classroom situation and a desperate hunt to teimipate arj ongoing missing-chjld situation before the parents turn up and notice the shortfall, er, situation in the offspring department. Check the library, just round the cornier. The present missing pupil unit had wandered off one day an< i had not been missed until a telephone call from the library had said she hqd turned up in search of books, but they had thought a four-year-old might neecf some help with her choice, not to

mention the problem of negotiating traffic, and even die problem of high kerbs, on the toddle back. Not at the library. Check the kindergarten kitchen. This pupil unit had a whopping appetite and had been known to make an assault on the contents of the fridge that would have been impressive in a pupil unit many times tier age and size. An across-the-board . .shortfall. Check the lockers. This pupil had been known to forage, in search of Mannite sandwiches and peanut butter into the depths of the locNers. No. The lunch boxes. Th* lunch boxes were over in the hall. Get to th? lynch boxes. Too late. One bloated pnpjl unit asleep pear a pile of ravaged lunch boxes. Eight of them out of a class of nine. Even in a feeding frenjty she had remembered to put aside . her own lunch box for later, for lunch.