"I've been drafted into hall patrol," Radix told her.
"Drafted? What do you mean, drafted?"
"Actually they were asking for volunteers to patrol the hallways, you know, during
periods when we're not teaching."
Mrs. Haliburton was suddenly fierce-lipped and silent. Radix reined in his fervour. He
thought she might be impressed with his readiness to help in the running of the school.
"See, this is when you realize the administration is running out of ideas."
"I don't follow you."
"You're going to be walking around…with clipboard and handcuffs…taking down
names like you're arresting people…what does that say to these kids?"
"Yes, but, we're trying to get them back in the classrooms."
"Which is where the problem is in the first case. Maybe we should ask ourselves, why
are they wandering the hallways? What's driving them outside the classroom where they
should be in the first case? Hall patrols!"
"Well, I'm new here, still feeling my way around," Radix said half-apologetically.
"You strike me as a man without a country," Mrs. Haliburton said, looking directly
in his eyes.
Coming out of nowhere the remark jolted Radix. He fidgeted and glanced at his
watch.
And Mrs. Haliburton, sensing she had touched a nerve, leaned back and said:
"Now there's a problem for you. We have people coming to these shores, some of them
from faraway places. We have a Russian, did you know that?…from Russia…and this teacher in the Math department, from India, they say he was a university professor back
in India. Well, honey, he's having a hard time here. I have kids come to me complaining
they don't understand a word he says. He speaks this strange English. Put him in a
classroom with kids from the Bronx, what kind of learning environment are we talking
about?"
She held her chin up and she stared at Radix as if her insights were unassailable.
The bell rang; a swelling roar spread through the building as the hallways filled up. Radix sprang to his feet, uneasy but relieved. Mrs. Haliburton smiled and said she was pleased
to have met him; conversation with him was quite stimulating; her door was always
open; he could drop by any time.
(from "Ah Mikhail, O Fidel!" a novel by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 