Punishment

I think I was a good student, without being very diligent... I was full of curiosity and loved to read and learn.

As I completed the first four years of what would be Elementary School today at the age of ten, I could not take the entrance exam to medium high school, as one of the requirements was that the candidates should be eleven years old. We had to take exams after each phase – one after the first four years, another after the next four years and an entrance exam to go to college.

Miss Flora, who was my fourth grade teacher, opened a preparatory course for the exam to go into the next phase and, as I could start medium high school until I was 11 I was one of the students. Miss Flora and her business partner were quite strict – she taught Portuguese and Math, her partner History and Geography, which were the four subjects we were examined in.

One day Miss Flora's partner scheduled an oral exam – capitals of the world. To me, it was easy and pleasurable to learn the names of the world capitals. On the day set for the oral exam, I was happy to go to school.

When my turn came, she started asking the questions:

_ Italy?

_ Rome!

_ France?

_ Paris!

_ England?

_ London!

_ Hungary?

_ …

_ Hungary? She repeated.

_ … I couldn't remember it! Implacable, she opened the drawer of her desk, took a handful of corn and threw it on the floor.

_ Kneel!

Terrified, I obeyed. We always obeyed in those days, there were no arguments. Tears started falling, streaming down my face, while my little classmates – children can be cruel too – laughed at my humiliation. And how it hurt...

After a while I was authorized to stand up and go back to my desk. What a horrible feeling, I think that was the first time I felt utterly helpless.

Time went on, I graduated from Normal School (a 3-year elementary teacher's preparatory course), took one year more of general training and participated in a selection exam to teach at SESI schools - at that time major industries had to sponsor schools for employee children and others – and I passed. At the age of 19, I started teaching. It was a very valuable experience for me, as SESI schools had a very high level and teachers went through a continuous education process, attending seminars in São Paulo with professor Candido de Oliveira and others during vacation months.

One day as I was walking to school I heard someone call my name. It was my former teacher, that one who had punished me so severely, who was on the other side of the street pushing a baby carriage.

I crossed the street to talk with her and hear the following words:

_ Rosaly, I have to talk with you. There is something that has been bothering my conscience during all these years. I want to ask your forgiveness.

Surprised, I asked:

_ Forgiveness? What for, teacher?

She continued:

_ Do you remember when I punished you?

_ How could I forget, teacher?

_ I know, I was too strict, you did not deserve such punishment.

_ I agree … But who is this baby?

_ My son... I married a widower and now I have this boy.

A beautiful boy, by the way, who years later became my brother's close friend.

I never forgot it: Hungary, capital Budapest!