Oh geez, this sounds so much like Haiku School and Maui High, where I was relentlessly bullied by kids for being too smart (and a haole, of course) and by teachers for not being smart enough. I beat feet off that island as soon as I had my diploma from Maui High and haven’t been back. I am sure my 5th grade teacher, Mrs Range (my younger brother referred to her as Mrs Rage) would be shocked that I went on to graduate from university with a BFA and law school with a JD summa cum laude. She thought I was an undisciplined, indulged haole kid and despised and hated me. I was terrified of her - and when adults bully children, it is damaging. I have spent time in therapy figuring it out.
Once people make their mind up about you, it's hard to make them change it. I'm sorry for your experience. Thanks for sharing your story. There have been some fascinating stories in the comments.
Oh my gosh .. you captured something really big here .. how many of us grew up in small towns? I chuckle as I can relate to the phenomena of once labeled, always the same .. and yet the bigger issue you point out is we as people do this all the time to each other. Spouses, friends, relatives .. OMG it’s like the plague .. it’s not about the size of the town or school, it’s about US, and our unwillingness to change and grow! Thanks Walter for another great article!
Thanks for this post! It reminded me of my education. I wasn’t in a small town; I was sent to Catholic school. From the very earliest I can remember, I had major trouble fitting in. I didn’t go to kindergarten, so when I got to 1st grade, I didn’t have any idea what to expect, but all the other kids were on top of it.
One day during the first week, the nun asked the class if they were ready to play music, so everyone but me stood up and went to a long cabinet under the windows, and grabbed pots and pans and wooden spoons and started to march around the room. I was already playing piano for about a year or so, and my mom was a church organist, so i just sat there horrified.
The nun asked me why I wasn’t playing music, and I said, “That isn’t playing music!” She got so mad at me that she made me sit in the coat room for the rest of the day! This was just the beginning, and it took me a while to realize that I had accidentally discovered sarcasm. Once I realized that, I started purposely using it to make myself feel better.
Your pencil story reminded me that when they were teaching me to write, I wanted to write with my left hand, but they told me not to, and made me write with my right hand instead. As a result, even a pharmacist can’t read my handwriting!
It all came to a head one day in High School. In religion class I asked why we had to eat fish every Friday, and then response was, “Because the Apostles were fishermen and we honor them.” I said, “It’s a good thing they weren’t fertilizer salesmen!” Of course I got suspended, and the only reason I didn’t get kicked out altogether was that my mom was connected by being an organist.
Throughout my whole experience in the Catholic school system, the main value was that I learned to be very skeptical about ideas and teachings. Every time I questioned anything, like the ridiculous Baltimore Catechism we were made to read, I saw that it infuriated the teachers, and realized that if your beliefs can’t stand up to criticism, you should question them to see why! The other thing I got was the ability to estimate small lengths with my hands, after having them whacked by rulers for 6+ years!
I find it a bit disturbing how many people have stories like this from the Catholic school they attended. In WI, there's a voucher program that steals taxpayer money designated for public schools and sends it to Catholic schools. It's just another part of the war on poor people. It's frustrating. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I think that the voucher programs are just another way the wealthy siphon money from public schools to subsidize private schools for their kids, and to weaken public education so there are more ignorant people that they can bs into voting for their preferred candidates. Add to that trying to control what books are allowed and what is permitted to be taught and you have the MAGA supply line.
I’ve no words for how you were treated by supposed professionals, teachers and administration, who are there to guide, instruct, encourage and help foster a love of learning and engaging each child’s creative self to produce citizens who engage in the world around them. Unfortunately, as you learned, this isn’t always the case. If you get a bad teacher and have a bad experience it does determine how you feel about yourself and how you look at the world. I’m thankful you had the fortitude to overcome these teachers and a mother who fought for you! This is such egregious malpractice of what teaching is meant to be, enlightening and educating each student to the world of possibilities. My wife teaches and is, if I say so myself, there for every student. Even after more than 20+ years of teacher, she fights for the inclusion of each student to succeed. It’s her job and what she was made for. I hate you experienced the bad apples of teachers Walter. I’m proud you overcame your abusive teachers and administrations to persevere. Always love your views and fight for what is right. Stay the course because it makes a difference. Have a blessed week my friend.
Thank you for the kind words. I have a teaching license myself and so does my wife. Some communities make it really difficult for teachers to succeed. I think of that often in our anti-intellectual era. Thanks again!
“To this day, my handwriting is defiantly illegible. I can’t even read it myself. Take that Ms. Second Grade Authoritarian Monster!” Oh gosh, this was so good, Walter! Made me laugh out loud and made me stay all the way through to the end as I could relate to so much of it. Taps into such a vulnerable place at the heart of all of us… well, I’ll speak for myself. Tapped into a deep recess in my heart. Such a good story with, in the end, such a good message. I love how you tied it all together for the larger experience. Thank you. I’m kinda new here but I look forward to more!
Walter, I had similar issues in grade school being in a Catholic school, I was always teased by certain boys in my classes. Also having an older brother, 10 1/2 months apart, created comparisons with many of my teachers, the majority being nuns. Never achieving the greatness of my older brother, it kept me timid throughout my early years & beyond. I tended to trust people too much, being very naive due to the sheltering from the real world. There's been so many very difficult years in my relationships, as well as trusting my own instincts. Life's lessons does make us stronger though, if we pay attention to them.
Wow, those nuns were some of the cruelest teachers, too. Using wooden rulers with a strip of metal running across the side, you would have to hold out your hands, palms down, so they could slap the heck out of them. Yikes!!! Unfortunately since I took piano classes, that nun, whose face still haunts me to this day, would slap the ruler over my knuckles if I didn't place my fingers over the piano keys properly, too.
Yes, grade school was a mind blowing experience which I didn't realize until later in life.
My cursive writing has always been a blow to my self-esteem, even in college.
I tend to write in a left slant, which I've found out was caused by switching dominant hands at a very young age. My maternal grandmother saw me using my left hand, which caused panic in her mind. It was not normal, always use the right hand as your dominant one.
I know from her experiences in Germany in the 20's & early 30's, the time the Nazi Party began establishing their presence in society, as well as the government, Germans had to be perfect!
My mom & grandmother, pregnant with my uncle, immigrated here in the mid 30's, when my mom was 4 years old. It was a difficult journey on a ship where my grandmother had to stay below deck due to her pregnancy sickness. My mom was taken care of by strangers aboard the ship bound for Ellis Island.
My grandfather had arrived months earlier, gotten a steady job and house prior to requesting their immigration papers. It was a very difficult time for the family, having to learn English quickly, & establishing themselves within their settled community in Chicago.
So, I have accepted my grandmother's reasoning for wanting her 1st granddaughter to be perfect.
But, I never was perfect.
I raised my 2 sons to do the best job they can with their own talents.
Life is a lesson that's never-ending, which keeps us all striving for our own personal growth.
So keep up your great writing, Walter. The more we share with others, our own self-esteem is heightened, knowing others have also experienced similar situations.
And in the end, we just might help someone going through their personal issues, too❣
The cruelty of nuns seems to come up a lot whenever anyone reflects on their Catholic school experience. That's tragic. None of us are perfect, but faithless mentors can sure make us feel guilty for not reaching that standard. I didn't realize the stigma against left handed people has endured into modern times. Religion certainly is barbaric. Thanks for sharing your story.
What a terrible experience! The school environment is fraught for so many kids, when it should be a place where children are encouraged to learn and grow. My experiences with school were mostly pleasant, but I remember intervening once on my son's behalf in fifth grade and the teacher retaliated. There are bad teachers, just as there are bad accountants or bad auto mechanics, but a teacher's impact on developing humans is long-lasting.
I adored this take of learning and childhood experiences. Everything we're exposed to makes up what we are and will be. My father worked for the phone Co as a district supervisor,so in all we moved almost every year of my school years . Between so many districts and so many different teachings of math theories in the 50-60s ..I pretty much lost all mathematical concepts. But because I'm human and have a way of desiring challenges ..I ended up in great positions of being a bookkeeper for a large Pathology laboratory ..and eventually a picture framer which takes complete attention on complete accurate measurements. You were lucky your mom listened . My biggest fear was going home to the physical beatings because of a mother that had 4 children and the two in the middle weren't wanted ..Amazing again because out of all four , I'm the predictable ,non abusive , positive , most humourous and happy one . Our bad experiences should show us how good we can be because of them . Thx for reminding me ...why I'm so great 👍
It's shameful that our society hasn't advanced to the point where it's universally understood that physical beatings cause only harm and ZERO help. Thank you for sharing your story.
It wAs in the 50-60s and physical abuse was supposed to happen ….probley so we would the next generation to stop it from happening .Really very destructive for a child's self confidence. My children never knew what a physical abusive parent was . Me . My dad had a spanking board ..a wide ripped moulding ..he drilled air holes in , just so it would hurt worse . And never one hit but stand proud and take it …always if he used it five smacks 5 for a F
4 for a D
I never even tried to get above a D .
Wouldn't have made a difference anyway . My poor brother was like me (in the middle too) one time he got 5 Fs
And 2Ds…so he put on his pagamas with his little pillow on his butt , and all went well for about 3 hits ….boy , he got it worse than you can imagine. Glad we can laugh about it now
Because of family bs ,I learned to laugh at our (my and my brothers )
resilient actions . I also learned that although parents have favorites (which because of these things I never would do that) it isn't really favorites ,it's parents know to protect the weak. For me that is the lesson In could learn and take from such a bad choice that mom and dad made . I also learned things could always be worse when my uncle broke that spanking board on my cousin . Things were so bad with child abuse in those days ,because it was instilled in parents to not have weak kids , moms weren't supposed to breast feed children and most physical attention (hugs) were the big no no . It was a time of experimentation of govt thinking we had to be strong , boys and men were told you never cry . Physical spankings were normal at school for discipline . Even harsh discipline and wife abuse was pretty much a swept under the carpet thing . It wasn't until the mid sixty's when women started becoming more defiant . Thank God for the hippy movement .
I had a similar experience, but I was in a biggish city. Private Christian school. Also math. I'm 69 years old and have hated math since the 2nd grade.
What is it with elementary school math teachers? Mine spanked me in front of the entire class, breaking the ruler on me, because I was slow finishing my work. Every answer was correct, but I was slow.
I've had a couple comments from Christian school students and they all detail terrible abuse. I wish something could be done about that. Don't think that it has been fixed. I bet kids are still getting beaten with rulers.
It was public schools . And believe it or not , after my kids started school in mid 80s ...a christian school in bay area of SF Calif , the principal did spank the boys at that school .
I'm getting a lot of interesting comments on this one. It saddens me to find out so many people had a similar experience. We need to build a better society. Thanks for sharing!
The kind of teaching you went through would barely be allowed today. Physical assault and belittlement are no longer considered acceptable responses to behavior- but perhaps that's one reason school shooters can get away with what they do....
Perhaps, it's the bullying perpetrated toward anyone different than the so-called accepted image of that community. There's also a definite lack of mental health professionals within most communities, as well as kids being shunned for having personal issues or just being different than their fellow classmates.
My youngest son suffered from depression for many years after moving into an upper class community.
Both sons had excelled in their previous school. Yet, I was told by oldest son's new teacher, that he might have excelled previously, getting straight A's, but now he would be competing with students whose parents were doctors & lawyers, etc. And she stated it loudly in front of the filled classroom. I just wanted to slap her across the face, yet I composed myself & continued on towards my youngest son's classroom.
Both of my sons were shamed for having middle class parents moving within their elitist culture. Our society has gotten even worse by the critical casting of wealth, power & of course, politics.
Yet, both of my sons found true friendships within that community.
When will we learn, we are all humans seeking to live our lives in the best way possible?
We must start seeing ourselves in another person's shoes, as the saying goes.
Let's not judge one another by jumping to conclusions.
That's where all the current disinformation begins, creating the divisive culture we currently experience, filled with hate & revenge. How does that feeling of anger make anyone loving & joyful?
It doesn't, so we end up wanting material possessions.
We all owe it to ourselves and our children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, friends & neighbors to be treated with respect and dignity.
Perhaps, you just might change or save someone's life❣
Oh geez, this sounds so much like Haiku School and Maui High, where I was relentlessly bullied by kids for being too smart (and a haole, of course) and by teachers for not being smart enough. I beat feet off that island as soon as I had my diploma from Maui High and haven’t been back. I am sure my 5th grade teacher, Mrs Range (my younger brother referred to her as Mrs Rage) would be shocked that I went on to graduate from university with a BFA and law school with a JD summa cum laude. She thought I was an undisciplined, indulged haole kid and despised and hated me. I was terrified of her - and when adults bully children, it is damaging. I have spent time in therapy figuring it out.
Once people make their mind up about you, it's hard to make them change it. I'm sorry for your experience. Thanks for sharing your story. There have been some fascinating stories in the comments.
Oh my gosh .. you captured something really big here .. how many of us grew up in small towns? I chuckle as I can relate to the phenomena of once labeled, always the same .. and yet the bigger issue you point out is we as people do this all the time to each other. Spouses, friends, relatives .. OMG it’s like the plague .. it’s not about the size of the town or school, it’s about US, and our unwillingness to change and grow! Thanks Walter for another great article!
Thank you Gene!
Thanks for this post! It reminded me of my education. I wasn’t in a small town; I was sent to Catholic school. From the very earliest I can remember, I had major trouble fitting in. I didn’t go to kindergarten, so when I got to 1st grade, I didn’t have any idea what to expect, but all the other kids were on top of it.
One day during the first week, the nun asked the class if they were ready to play music, so everyone but me stood up and went to a long cabinet under the windows, and grabbed pots and pans and wooden spoons and started to march around the room. I was already playing piano for about a year or so, and my mom was a church organist, so i just sat there horrified.
The nun asked me why I wasn’t playing music, and I said, “That isn’t playing music!” She got so mad at me that she made me sit in the coat room for the rest of the day! This was just the beginning, and it took me a while to realize that I had accidentally discovered sarcasm. Once I realized that, I started purposely using it to make myself feel better.
Your pencil story reminded me that when they were teaching me to write, I wanted to write with my left hand, but they told me not to, and made me write with my right hand instead. As a result, even a pharmacist can’t read my handwriting!
It all came to a head one day in High School. In religion class I asked why we had to eat fish every Friday, and then response was, “Because the Apostles were fishermen and we honor them.” I said, “It’s a good thing they weren’t fertilizer salesmen!” Of course I got suspended, and the only reason I didn’t get kicked out altogether was that my mom was connected by being an organist.
Throughout my whole experience in the Catholic school system, the main value was that I learned to be very skeptical about ideas and teachings. Every time I questioned anything, like the ridiculous Baltimore Catechism we were made to read, I saw that it infuriated the teachers, and realized that if your beliefs can’t stand up to criticism, you should question them to see why! The other thing I got was the ability to estimate small lengths with my hands, after having them whacked by rulers for 6+ years!
I find it a bit disturbing how many people have stories like this from the Catholic school they attended. In WI, there's a voucher program that steals taxpayer money designated for public schools and sends it to Catholic schools. It's just another part of the war on poor people. It's frustrating. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I think that the voucher programs are just another way the wealthy siphon money from public schools to subsidize private schools for their kids, and to weaken public education so there are more ignorant people that they can bs into voting for their preferred candidates. Add to that trying to control what books are allowed and what is permitted to be taught and you have the MAGA supply line.
I’ve no words for how you were treated by supposed professionals, teachers and administration, who are there to guide, instruct, encourage and help foster a love of learning and engaging each child’s creative self to produce citizens who engage in the world around them. Unfortunately, as you learned, this isn’t always the case. If you get a bad teacher and have a bad experience it does determine how you feel about yourself and how you look at the world. I’m thankful you had the fortitude to overcome these teachers and a mother who fought for you! This is such egregious malpractice of what teaching is meant to be, enlightening and educating each student to the world of possibilities. My wife teaches and is, if I say so myself, there for every student. Even after more than 20+ years of teacher, she fights for the inclusion of each student to succeed. It’s her job and what she was made for. I hate you experienced the bad apples of teachers Walter. I’m proud you overcame your abusive teachers and administrations to persevere. Always love your views and fight for what is right. Stay the course because it makes a difference. Have a blessed week my friend.
Thank you for the kind words. I have a teaching license myself and so does my wife. Some communities make it really difficult for teachers to succeed. I think of that often in our anti-intellectual era. Thanks again!
“To this day, my handwriting is defiantly illegible. I can’t even read it myself. Take that Ms. Second Grade Authoritarian Monster!” Oh gosh, this was so good, Walter! Made me laugh out loud and made me stay all the way through to the end as I could relate to so much of it. Taps into such a vulnerable place at the heart of all of us… well, I’ll speak for myself. Tapped into a deep recess in my heart. Such a good story with, in the end, such a good message. I love how you tied it all together for the larger experience. Thank you. I’m kinda new here but I look forward to more!
Thanks for the lovely comment! Hopefully I'll hear from you again!
For sure!
Just another brick in the wall.
Pretty much!
I am so sorry for your experience. The school you attended is disgraceful. The bus driver was disgraceful.
During my time in school there were 3 suicides. I had a graduating class of 106.
Walter, I had similar issues in grade school being in a Catholic school, I was always teased by certain boys in my classes. Also having an older brother, 10 1/2 months apart, created comparisons with many of my teachers, the majority being nuns. Never achieving the greatness of my older brother, it kept me timid throughout my early years & beyond. I tended to trust people too much, being very naive due to the sheltering from the real world. There's been so many very difficult years in my relationships, as well as trusting my own instincts. Life's lessons does make us stronger though, if we pay attention to them.
Wow, those nuns were some of the cruelest teachers, too. Using wooden rulers with a strip of metal running across the side, you would have to hold out your hands, palms down, so they could slap the heck out of them. Yikes!!! Unfortunately since I took piano classes, that nun, whose face still haunts me to this day, would slap the ruler over my knuckles if I didn't place my fingers over the piano keys properly, too.
Yes, grade school was a mind blowing experience which I didn't realize until later in life.
My cursive writing has always been a blow to my self-esteem, even in college.
I tend to write in a left slant, which I've found out was caused by switching dominant hands at a very young age. My maternal grandmother saw me using my left hand, which caused panic in her mind. It was not normal, always use the right hand as your dominant one.
I know from her experiences in Germany in the 20's & early 30's, the time the Nazi Party began establishing their presence in society, as well as the government, Germans had to be perfect!
My mom & grandmother, pregnant with my uncle, immigrated here in the mid 30's, when my mom was 4 years old. It was a difficult journey on a ship where my grandmother had to stay below deck due to her pregnancy sickness. My mom was taken care of by strangers aboard the ship bound for Ellis Island.
My grandfather had arrived months earlier, gotten a steady job and house prior to requesting their immigration papers. It was a very difficult time for the family, having to learn English quickly, & establishing themselves within their settled community in Chicago.
So, I have accepted my grandmother's reasoning for wanting her 1st granddaughter to be perfect.
But, I never was perfect.
I raised my 2 sons to do the best job they can with their own talents.
Life is a lesson that's never-ending, which keeps us all striving for our own personal growth.
So keep up your great writing, Walter. The more we share with others, our own self-esteem is heightened, knowing others have also experienced similar situations.
And in the end, we just might help someone going through their personal issues, too❣
The cruelty of nuns seems to come up a lot whenever anyone reflects on their Catholic school experience. That's tragic. None of us are perfect, but faithless mentors can sure make us feel guilty for not reaching that standard. I didn't realize the stigma against left handed people has endured into modern times. Religion certainly is barbaric. Thanks for sharing your story.
What a terrible experience! The school environment is fraught for so many kids, when it should be a place where children are encouraged to learn and grow. My experiences with school were mostly pleasant, but I remember intervening once on my son's behalf in fifth grade and the teacher retaliated. There are bad teachers, just as there are bad accountants or bad auto mechanics, but a teacher's impact on developing humans is long-lasting.
It’s pretty awful in conservative rural areas where they’re reluctant to trust or hire competent, educated professionals
I adored this take of learning and childhood experiences. Everything we're exposed to makes up what we are and will be. My father worked for the phone Co as a district supervisor,so in all we moved almost every year of my school years . Between so many districts and so many different teachings of math theories in the 50-60s ..I pretty much lost all mathematical concepts. But because I'm human and have a way of desiring challenges ..I ended up in great positions of being a bookkeeper for a large Pathology laboratory ..and eventually a picture framer which takes complete attention on complete accurate measurements. You were lucky your mom listened . My biggest fear was going home to the physical beatings because of a mother that had 4 children and the two in the middle weren't wanted ..Amazing again because out of all four , I'm the predictable ,non abusive , positive , most humourous and happy one . Our bad experiences should show us how good we can be because of them . Thx for reminding me ...why I'm so great 👍
It's shameful that our society hasn't advanced to the point where it's universally understood that physical beatings cause only harm and ZERO help. Thank you for sharing your story.
It wAs in the 50-60s and physical abuse was supposed to happen ….probley so we would the next generation to stop it from happening .Really very destructive for a child's self confidence. My children never knew what a physical abusive parent was . Me . My dad had a spanking board ..a wide ripped moulding ..he drilled air holes in , just so it would hurt worse . And never one hit but stand proud and take it …always if he used it five smacks 5 for a F
4 for a D
I never even tried to get above a D .
Wouldn't have made a difference anyway . My poor brother was like me (in the middle too) one time he got 5 Fs
And 2Ds…so he put on his pagamas with his little pillow on his butt , and all went well for about 3 hits ….boy , he got it worse than you can imagine. Glad we can laugh about it now
I don't know if there ever comes a time when you can laugh about that. I'm sorry for that experience.
Because of family bs ,I learned to laugh at our (my and my brothers )
resilient actions . I also learned that although parents have favorites (which because of these things I never would do that) it isn't really favorites ,it's parents know to protect the weak. For me that is the lesson In could learn and take from such a bad choice that mom and dad made . I also learned things could always be worse when my uncle broke that spanking board on my cousin . Things were so bad with child abuse in those days ,because it was instilled in parents to not have weak kids , moms weren't supposed to breast feed children and most physical attention (hugs) were the big no no . It was a time of experimentation of govt thinking we had to be strong , boys and men were told you never cry . Physical spankings were normal at school for discipline . Even harsh discipline and wife abuse was pretty much a swept under the carpet thing . It wasn't until the mid sixty's when women started becoming more defiant . Thank God for the hippy movement .
I had a similar experience, but I was in a biggish city. Private Christian school. Also math. I'm 69 years old and have hated math since the 2nd grade.
What is it with elementary school math teachers? Mine spanked me in front of the entire class, breaking the ruler on me, because I was slow finishing my work. Every answer was correct, but I was slow.
I've had a couple comments from Christian school students and they all detail terrible abuse. I wish something could be done about that. Don't think that it has been fixed. I bet kids are still getting beaten with rulers.
It was public schools . And believe it or not , after my kids started school in mid 80s ...a christian school in bay area of SF Calif , the principal did spank the boys at that school .
I found subversion preferable to open rebellion
Yeah, that was my conclusion too.
Holy crap, I felt this in my soul..
Thank you!
Shocking stuff. I thought at least the teacher might be empathetic.
Naw, there were a few, but most of them were just there for a paycheck.
Whoo hah. Could have been describing 1957 in Mrs Jones fifth grade at Clyde Hill so far as handwriting goes and developing the deadpan face.
I'm getting a lot of interesting comments on this one. It saddens me to find out so many people had a similar experience. We need to build a better society. Thanks for sharing!
The kind of teaching you went through would barely be allowed today. Physical assault and belittlement are no longer considered acceptable responses to behavior- but perhaps that's one reason school shooters can get away with what they do....
Yeah, the US still thinks punishment is a viable approach, unfortunately.
Perhaps, it's the bullying perpetrated toward anyone different than the so-called accepted image of that community. There's also a definite lack of mental health professionals within most communities, as well as kids being shunned for having personal issues or just being different than their fellow classmates.
My youngest son suffered from depression for many years after moving into an upper class community.
Both sons had excelled in their previous school. Yet, I was told by oldest son's new teacher, that he might have excelled previously, getting straight A's, but now he would be competing with students whose parents were doctors & lawyers, etc. And she stated it loudly in front of the filled classroom. I just wanted to slap her across the face, yet I composed myself & continued on towards my youngest son's classroom.
Both of my sons were shamed for having middle class parents moving within their elitist culture. Our society has gotten even worse by the critical casting of wealth, power & of course, politics.
Yet, both of my sons found true friendships within that community.
When will we learn, we are all humans seeking to live our lives in the best way possible?
We must start seeing ourselves in another person's shoes, as the saying goes.
Let's not judge one another by jumping to conclusions.
That's where all the current disinformation begins, creating the divisive culture we currently experience, filled with hate & revenge. How does that feeling of anger make anyone loving & joyful?
It doesn't, so we end up wanting material possessions.
We all owe it to ourselves and our children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, friends & neighbors to be treated with respect and dignity.
Perhaps, you just might change or save someone's life❣
Thank you for that kind and hopeful comment!