My name is Brenda, and I was born in 1954. I received my early education at a Catholic parochial school in a small New England town. During those years I received corporal punishment at school only once. That was in the third grade, but my story really begins a year earlier. In 1961 I began the second grade at Saint J School. Unlike the previous year, when we were immature first graders, my classmates and I were allowed to attend school assemblies. They were held in the gym, and we all stood-eighth graders in the front, second graders in the back, and everyone else in between-for prayers, the national anthem, and announcements. We must have looked like a sea of blue, with all of the boys wearing light blue shirts and all of the girls wearing navy blue uniform jumpers over white blouses. Th...
Despite the fact that her kids were arguing all day, Sandy took them out to dinner at the steak place because she didn’t feel like cooking. She hated the summer, and wondered why there wasn’t school all year long. A single mother, Sandy had a great job in advertising that permitted her to work more at home than the office, especially handy during school vacation or when a child gets sick. This also means she doesn’t get a lot of breaks from the bickering and fighting that goes on between the siblings. Even though the youngest goes to day camp and the older two like to swim they still find time to argue. This means mom’s work is often interrupted when she has to step out of her office/study to reprimand someone or place the occasional child over her knee to maintain the peace. After securin...