Murch “Blue and Gold” EXCLUSIVE: Teachers share their embarrassing grade school moments

Forgive us for the tabloid headline. But we thought you should know that the new edition of Murch Elementary’s student newspaper is hot off the presses. And we think it’s a good read.

Under the guidance of retired journalist Aaron Epstein and the mantra, “We Shall Not Bore the Reader,” intrepid young Blue and Gold reporters set out to chronicle their experiences, recommend some good reading, and, quite often, get their teachers to talk about what they were like in grade school. (More on that below.)

Another perennial topic: Reviews of the hot lunch menu.

Kids don’t change much, but their experiences do vary widely from year to year. The June 2020 and 2021 editions of the Murch Blue and Gold were covid-19 chronicles. In the June 2022 newspaper, a student writes of living in Kiev, Ukraine for a year in 2020 and 2021. The kids don’t just know what’s going on in the world. They are affected by it, too.

We hope you’ll read the entire newspaper (including the school lunch review). You can check out previous issues at murchschool.org. We also have their permission to reprint articles, so without further ado:

A few lessons teachers learned as kids in school

by Yordan Slanchev and Jason Nuamah
June 2022

Chances are that if you’ve been a student for a few years, you’ve gotten into trouble or been embarrassed in school at least once. So did many teachers at Murch when they were kids.

Fourth-grade teacher Timothy Brady, for example. He stopped doing his homework for a couple of weeks. Guess what happened next?

“When my teacher and parents found out,” Mr. Brady remembered, “I wasn’t allowed to play with (my friend) until I finished all the homework I didn’t do, which took hours.”

When Carrie Roling, a 5th-grade teacher, was asked to recall an awful experience in school, she answered this way: “So one time I got in trouble in elementary school was when I had this brilliant idea of bringing a Walkman to school and listening to music during class.”

(A Walkman is a personal stereo that you can stuff into your pocket, connect to earbuds and listen to local radio stations).

[Editors’ note: A visual aid for those still not familiar. We would also like to note that these devices played something called “cassette tapes.” And we’ve gotta say this 1995 Walkman looks stealthier than the ones we remember.] (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

“I shrugged up my shoulders, hid the earbuds in my hair and hid the Walkman in my pocket,” Ms. Roling said. “I got to listen only a couple of minutes into my favorite song until the teacher caught me.”

Ms. Roling said she couldn’t remember exactly what happened next but it was “very embarrassing.”

Allen Travitz, who teaches 2nd-grade kids, said he got into trouble in elementary school for disobeying his teacher’s instructions. He sent Valentine’s Day cards to two classmates who didn’t celebrate that day.

“Our teacher told us specifically not to send them Valentine cards, so they were really surprised when they got cards from me.”

The teacher scolded him in front of the class, Mr. Travitz remembered.

First-grade teacher Kathleen Bergin told of a morning when “I woke up pretending I was sick so I didn’t have to go to school.”

A few hours later, Ms. Bergin said she felt guilty and turned herself in.

“I didn’t exactly get a punishment, but my mom had to tell me that I was wrong,” she recalled.

Finally, kindergarten teacher Lucie Mendelson remembered a day when “I refused to get in line after recess was over. I even hid from the teachers.”

That event was especially embarrassing for young Lucie since one of the teachers was her mom.

In the 2021 issue, the Blue and Gold asked readers if they could name these teachers and staff members.

The answers, in the 2022 issue: former 4th grade teacher Tatum Kelly, Principal Chris Cebrzynski, and former assistant principal Penelope Miller