And Then It Hit Me!

I am no longer in the misdemeanor court here in the East Los Angeles Courthouse. Yup, that is right, folks; I am now doing Preliminary Hearings in Department 5. I have been there for about six weeks.

It is going okay so far, but the judge is a bit tough on us new bees. Today I got a little "chewed out" by the judge. My less than-two-feet-tall-feeling-self felt like crawling under the desk as this little "chewing out" was taking place. I was feeling "disanimo" (this Spanish word is a perfect description of how I felt-I can't think of the English translation).

As the day went on, however, I remembered Mrs. Cady! Mrs. Cady was my thrid grade teacher who was MEAN! She made all the little third graders cry and five kids got transferred out of her class the first month! I am sure all the crying third graders went home crying to their mommys and daddys and in turn the mommys and daddys went to prinicpal and demanded that their kids get taken out of Mrs. Cady's class.

Anyway, Mrs. Cady was tough and mean! Mrs. Cady was tough and mean to me, but at the time, I never understood why. I just thought she didn't like me.


My thrid grade self went home everyday and everyday my mommy would ask me, "Do you have homework today?" I would confidently reply, "Nope. No homework today. Can I go ride my bike now?" Mommy said, "If you have no homework, you can go play." This happened almost everyday for the first few months of when I was in Mrs. Cady's class.

One day I went to ride my bike and play again after telling my mommy that I had no homework again. After a few hours I came to my parents shop and my mom looked angry! She closed the shop for a couple hours and took me to the back. She spanked me and said, "Why did you lie to me all this time? Why did you tell me that you didn't have any homework? You just said that because you wanted to go play! Mrs. Cady came to the shop and told me that you haven't done any homework at all since the first day of school!"

I cried and cried! I told mommy, "I DIDN'T have any homework." This just upset mommy more and I got spanked even more.

I went to school the next day. Mrs. Cady called me aside and scorned, "How could you lie to your mother like that? How could you tell her that you didn't have any homework when you know you did! You know your homework everyday because I write it on the chalkboard everyday (Mrs. Cady pointing at the chalkboard)!"

I turned my head and looked at the chalkboard...And there it was...HOMEWORK...Math p. 30 problems 1-30...Spelling...Vocabulary....Reading....History...etc.

I look back in retrospect and now I realize I never knew I had homework because I didn't understand! I grew up speaking Korean in the house and so I guess I never understood what was going on in class.

At that moment, looking at the chalkboard with the word "HOMEWORK" it hit me. I think that was the first day of me "getting it." And since that day in Mrs. Cady's thrid grade class I have never missed another homework assignment since. If it wasn't for "mean-ole-Mrs. Cady" I wouldn't be here today.

My point? I believe the "mean-ole judges" who "chew me out" will too show me the HOMEWORK board. And for that, I will thank them as I do good-ole-mean-ole Mrs. Cady.