[Sidenote: Busy Work]
Elsie Johnson was the happiest girl in Camden, when her mother said to
her one morning, “Elsie, mother is going to let you go to school this
year along with sister Jane. Won’t that be fun?” It was indeed “fun” for
Elsie Johnson. She liked the teacher, the other little girls, the
wonderful action songs and the music, but best of all the “busy work.”
One day as a special treat Elsie’s teacher, Miss Wells, gave her a box
of wooden kindergarten beads to string. All too soon the warning bell
rang, notifying the children that it was time for school to close and
work must be put away. But Elsie had just invented a new design. To lay
aside her precious beads in the midst of working it out was the last
thing she desired to do. “Elsie, put up your work now,” said the
teacher. The nervous fingers only worked the faster.
“Put up your work, Elsie,” repeated the teacher. No response save a
tighter clutch on the beloved beads. Miss Wells stepped up to the desk,
took the string of beads forcibly, and not very gently, out of Elsie’s
hands, and was just reaching for the box containing the unstrung beads,
with the intention of putting them away for the night, when Elsie
suddenly stamped her foot in a rage, threw the box on the floor, the
beads rolling in all directions, and burst into a violent fit of
weeping.
“Why, Elsie Johnson! What a naughty, naughty girl!” said Miss Wells. She
dismissed the other children, then, taking hold of Elsie’s arm, she
lifted her quickly out of her seat, partly carried, partly dragged her
to the wardrobe, and forcibly put on Elsie’s wraps. When Jane came to
take her sister home, Miss Wells pointed to the beads still lying on the
floor and said, “Tell your mother, Jane, that Elsie has been a bad, bad
girl today. She did not mind when told to put away her work; she threw
the beads on the floor, then kicked, cried and stamped her feet when I
told her to put on her wraps. I am very, very much ashamed of her.”