Detained
The third week of school brought on the introduction of autobiography requirements. Often when our students hear the word "auto-bio-graphy" they panic. It sounds so official and daunting, but in reality it is simply writing reflections on things that have happened in their lives. Many students hate this graduation requirement and spend months dragging their feet on getting started.
I have no problem talking about things that have happened in my life and what I learned from the events, so I truly struggle to understand why people hate it so much. How can talking about memorable things in your life be so dreadful?
I have no problem talking about things that have happened in my life and what I learned from the events, so I truly struggle to understand why people hate it so much. How can talking about memorable things in your life be so dreadful?
This week I was asked to lead a group of students in an exercise that would serve as a launch-point for writing autobiographies and attempt to prove to students how fun writing about their lives could be. I was pumped. I was handed the writing prompt "Name a time you were caught." and knew this was going to be fun.
I decided the best way to get the students interested in writing their own story would be to share mine. There really are quite a few to choose from....I went with the one with the most action and greatest potential consequences. I told them the story about the time I was detained by local law enforcement for vandalizing someone's house. To be clear "vandalism" consisted of about 36 rolls of toilet paper and some plastic forks. We knew we were caught when a light flipped on, then things got serious when we found ourselves being chased through the neighborhood by the barefooted, half naked homeowner. We managed to outrun him and were walking through the neighborhood, laying low and trying to decide just how long we would have to waste before we could safely return to my friend's car, when suddenly we found ourselves dead center of a police searchlight. And there we were sitting in the back of a police cruiser, being returned to the scene of the crime.
After leading with my shenanigans I sent the students off to write their own stories. My grand plan was for them to write about the time they got caught for about 5 minutes, then we would talk about consequences and what we would do different if we could re-live that moment. Unfortunately, the students didn't have as much buy-in as I hoped and we never got that far but I started thinking about the last two parts of the exercise.
What did I learn from this event?
1. The county line thing from Dukes of Hazard isn't real. The whole time we were roaming through that neighborhood we were thinking if we could just make it to the border of the next city we would be out of the jurisdiction of Folsom PD and be safe. That was silly. Not that we made it to the border anyway, but still.
2. When pulling off a prank on someone it is vital that the person will see the prank as a friendly action and not an actual attack or crime against them. Turns out, the person whose house we were "vandalizing" was not a friend of my friend, but an actual enemy. They hated each other. I would like to think that if I knew this prior to the prank, I wouldn't have participated. There is definitely a difference between toilet papering a house, shrink wrapping a car or tying the shoe laces together of a friend than an enemy.
3. Justice. The overriding lesson of this event was that justice was served. Fair, reasonable consequences were handed out. The homeowner asked that we return first thing in the morning and clean up every last ounce of toilet paper from his yard. My parents restricted me from doing any social activities outside of church. That might seem like a huge consequence but the reality was, I was 13 almost all my social activities were with my youth group. In fact, I learned how to tp a house with my youth group. But, my parents saw that my heart was not to vandalize someone's house out of malice, but just a kid having fun, causing temporary damage as a joke. My consequences really did fit the crime.
Detained - not arrested. There is a big difference!
I decided the best way to get the students interested in writing their own story would be to share mine. There really are quite a few to choose from....I went with the one with the most action and greatest potential consequences. I told them the story about the time I was detained by local law enforcement for vandalizing someone's house. To be clear "vandalism" consisted of about 36 rolls of toilet paper and some plastic forks. We knew we were caught when a light flipped on, then things got serious when we found ourselves being chased through the neighborhood by the barefooted, half naked homeowner. We managed to outrun him and were walking through the neighborhood, laying low and trying to decide just how long we would have to waste before we could safely return to my friend's car, when suddenly we found ourselves dead center of a police searchlight. And there we were sitting in the back of a police cruiser, being returned to the scene of the crime.
After leading with my shenanigans I sent the students off to write their own stories. My grand plan was for them to write about the time they got caught for about 5 minutes, then we would talk about consequences and what we would do different if we could re-live that moment. Unfortunately, the students didn't have as much buy-in as I hoped and we never got that far but I started thinking about the last two parts of the exercise.
What did I learn from this event?
1. The county line thing from Dukes of Hazard isn't real. The whole time we were roaming through that neighborhood we were thinking if we could just make it to the border of the next city we would be out of the jurisdiction of Folsom PD and be safe. That was silly. Not that we made it to the border anyway, but still.
2. When pulling off a prank on someone it is vital that the person will see the prank as a friendly action and not an actual attack or crime against them. Turns out, the person whose house we were "vandalizing" was not a friend of my friend, but an actual enemy. They hated each other. I would like to think that if I knew this prior to the prank, I wouldn't have participated. There is definitely a difference between toilet papering a house, shrink wrapping a car or tying the shoe laces together of a friend than an enemy.
3. Justice. The overriding lesson of this event was that justice was served. Fair, reasonable consequences were handed out. The homeowner asked that we return first thing in the morning and clean up every last ounce of toilet paper from his yard. My parents restricted me from doing any social activities outside of church. That might seem like a huge consequence but the reality was, I was 13 almost all my social activities were with my youth group. In fact, I learned how to tp a house with my youth group. But, my parents saw that my heart was not to vandalize someone's house out of malice, but just a kid having fun, causing temporary damage as a joke. My consequences really did fit the crime.
Detained - not arrested. There is a big difference!
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