All the Good
海倫·姆羅斯拉 / Helen Mrosla
He was in the third grade class I taught at Saint Mary’s School in Morris， Minnesota. All 34 of my students were clear to me， but Mark Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance， he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful.
Mark also talked incessantly. I tried to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so much， though， was the sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving. “Thank you for correcting me， Sister！” I didn’t know what to make of it at first， but before long I became accustomed to hearing it many times a day.
One morning my patience was growing thin when Mark talked once too often. I made a novice-teacher’s mistake. I looked at Mark and said， “If you say one more word， I am going to tape your mouth shut！”
It wasn’t ten seconds later when Chuck blurted out， “Mark is talking again.” I hadn’t asked any of the students to help me watch Mark， but since I had stated the punishment in front of the class， I had to act on it.
I remember the scene as if it had occurred this morning. I walked to my desk， very deliberately opened the drawer and took out a roll of masking tape. Without saying a word， I proceeded to Mark’s desk， tore off two pieces of tape and made a big X with them over his mouth. I then returned to the front of the room.
As I glanced at Mark to see how he was doing， he winked at me. That did it！ I started laughing. The entire class cheered as I walked back to Mark’s desk， removed the tape and shrugged my shoulders. His first words were， “Thank you for correcting me， Sister.”
At the end of the year I was asked to teach junior high math. The years flew by， and before I knew it Mark was in my classroom again. He was more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen carefully to my instruction in the “new math”， he did not talk as much in ninth grade.