THE TOUGH GUY

Years ago I taught middle school in a rough part of town. A young male teacher was assigned the very worst class of rowdy boys. He wore a plaster cast over his upper body, concealed by his shirt. He had recently had spinal surgery. On the first day of school he had the window open and his tie kept blowing around. Unfazed, he made eye contact with a streetwise kid in the front row, picked the stapler off his desk and stapled the flapping tie to his chest. Stunned silence and very few behavior problems in that class after that!