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He was in the first third grade class I taught at Saint Mary’s School in Morris, Minn.All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million.Very neat in appearance, he had that happytobealive attitude that made even his occasional misconduct delightful.
Mark often talked constantly. I had to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable.What impressed me so much, though, was his 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, and then I made a new teacher’s mistake.I looked at him and said，“If you say one more word, I am going to tape(用胶带封上) your mouth shut！”
It wasn’t ten seconds later when Chuck, another student, 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 my 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.When I walked back to Mark’s desk and removed the tape, his first words were, “Thank you for correcting me, Sister.”
