Heads or Tails

I'm sure most people will be talking about their pet(s) but I chose to talk about a different type of pet, Teacher's Pet.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, a teacher's pet refers to a student at school who particularly respects the authority of a teacher(s), and therefore receives special treatment from the teacher(s). Teacher's pets are often picked on for their excessive correctness to authority, particularly by school bullies.

In the 1950’s movie, The Teacher’s Pet, staring Clark Gable and Doris Day Erica Stone (Doris Day) asks Gannon (Clark Gable), a successful journalist to speak at her night-school college journalism class. He turns down the invitation, writing a nasty letter stating his viewpoint, but is ordered to go before the class by his editor-in-chief. He finds the attractive Stone teaching the class. Before he is able to introduce himself and apologize for the letter, Erica reads it aloud and mocks Gannon before the class. Humiliated, he decides to join the class to show her up, posing as a wallpaper salesman named Jim Gallagher. Erica is quite taken by this charming man, whom she unwittingly finds exceptional for a novice journalist. Gannon continues his ruse as he becomes quite enchanted with Erica, when Erica discovers Gannon's deception; she immediately calls their relationship off, but later gives him another chance. By the end of the film, both Jim and Erica have come to understand, and partially adopt, the other's point of view.

When I was in grade school and junior high, one of my best friend was the Teacher’s Pet. Phyllis was not necessarily the smartest, cutest, or most out going, but she received special treatment from the teachers. Before last year, I had not seen Phyllis since high school graduation. Phyllis and I were best friends and I couldn’t understand how she got all this special attention and I didn’t. I use to think the teachers would gather in the teachers lounge to discuss their pets so year after year the same student would be the pet as they moved through the different years at school.

My daughter was a teacher before she started a family. I asked her if during her teaching years did she have pets. She told me as hard as she tired not to, she did. I asked her what were the characteristics of these children that made them her pets. Her response was simple, it was their personality.

Completely off the subject of pet, I would like to share how I ran into Phyllis last year. While my brother was at the Hospice House, a young social worker kept coming by to visit. My nieces knew her but didn’t think to tell me who she was. I knew there was something very special about this young woman. Then one day one of my nieces told me this young woman’s mother was Phyllis. The next time she came to visit my brother I asked her if she would give something to her Mom from me. I reached in and gave her a big hug. Phyllis came to my brother’s wake. It was wonderful seeing her again after 42 years.