School Days

I strolled along the long, winding brick road to the bustling high school ahead, with butterflies in my stomach. Upon entering the crimson metal gates, fond memories flooded through my mind of the eye-opening knowledge and skills I acquired here. Only now, I am not the shy, timid student, but the brave principal. It has been so long since I last walked down the corridors. Joy and craziness overtook me, overwhelming me with triumph and pride.

Navigating my way to the principal office, I see colourful banners dangling from the roof and kids parting like the good old days. A I sat myself in the comfy chair, children rushing to class swarmed me, shouting and celebrating. I ask them what they are celebrating.

“Freedom!” Exclaimed the cheerful chorus.

“No freedom,'' a dark and gloomy voice cuts into the celebration. The children retreat into their classes.

“Sorry about that,” the voice continued.

“Are you the old principal?” I ask.

“Yes and I am here to train you,” the voice continued.” I am Principal Krupp.

Now I could see a bald, obese man wearing a toupee emerging from behind the curtains. He wore a white shirt and brownish pants with a black belt.

”Come with me,” Krupp urged with a grin growing on his face.

I followed him down the corridor into a room with cardboard kids.

“This is where you will undergo your training. I will give you scenarios and you have to react correctly,” Krupp finished.

After a lot of scenarios and yelling as challenging as climbing up Mount Everest with a sumo wrestler on my back, I had finally completed my training. I thought about it and it turns out all I have to do is be mean to the kids. The man left the school in a hurry.

As soon as he left school I announced “free ice cream and freedom'' on the loudspeaker. I heard cheers from students of all grades. I made a speech at lunch for all the kids.

“When I was at this school, we had fun times everyday and our principal helped us learn in a fun way. We had the best grades and fun. I am going to do the same teaching methods for you. This is the return of the old teaching ways. We will have one hour of free time each day if you do a good day of learning. If you do a bad job you only have ten minutes,” I finished, and smiles grew from ear to ear on the kids' bright, rosy faces.

For the next few weeks, the kids had fun playing during free time but they also put extra effort into their work to make me proud. Krupp found out that the children were having fun from one of the parents. He emailed me if he could have one last check on the school. I replied sure. When he arrived he saw students playing around like toddlers.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“This is their daily break,” I replied.

“What happened to being mean to the kids,” Krupp pressured with a stern tone.

“Well, when I was at this school in the past our principal gave us lots of free time if we worked hard for a test or exam. This school had the best test results and had the most fun. I am trying to bring those things back to the school. Look at their latest test, over two thirds of the students got over ninety five percent,” I said, fiddling with my hands.

“Wow, I never thought kids could learn so much while having so much fun. I will tell this to my child who is also a teacher to teach kids in a fun way,” Krupp finished with a sad tone.

“It is okay that you didn’t know about it. After all you were just trying to teach them,” I said empathetically knowing he was trying his best.

“I would like to have a word with the school. Can you gather them up>” Krupp inquired.

“No problem,”I answered with a smile on my face.

“Everyone please make your way to the hall. Mr Krupp would like to have a word with you all,” I announced from the loudspeaker.

Everyone gathered in the hall and Mr Krupp stood on the stage shaking the microphone like it was a gaming controller.

“I'm so sorry,” he stared. “ I didn’t know learning and teaching could be so fun. If I did, trust me I would have changed. I made your time at school miserable but your new principal is different. He taught me that teaching and learning can be fun and exciting. I didn’t believe him at first but now I truly believe your grades will be skyrocketing,” he announced with tears appearing on his face.

“It’s okay,”came a chorus of replies “we know you didn’t know about this. We are also sorry for not trying to teach you it can be fun.”

Soon everyone was dismissed back to free time.

“Some good kids they are,‘’ Krupp says, “thank you for teaching everyone to have fun while learning and playing. I know the school will be in good hands,” he finished as they were walking to the front gates of the school.

With that Krupp left knowing that I am a great principal. After school I found out that the students made a farewell gift to Krupp. I told them I would post it to him. The gift was the handprints of everyone in the school.

I knew the kids were great and would grow up into smart people. Krupp also knew that but he learnt that learning can be fun and so can teaching.