WDT_logo.jpg (20771 bytes)Welcome to DavidTarver.com
Home Up Crucilble Mayor Serious? Womb to Tomb The End, v2 Barbara King Going Home My First Apt. They Need More A Parking Tale My Lost Song Vegetative CNN Special? Diversity University Kids' Sports The Dream? Memory, Mentor Vintage Sausage Price of Loyalty Uncle Bill NCLB Integration Customer Service Brown Babies The Big Storm Buffalo Soldier Annie's Gift Inspiring Performance Bouncing Back Yamamoto Survivor Dr. Warner Popcorn Ham Sandwich Reggie Drew Horgan No Crossing Hard Work, Luck Earth Angel

 

Reggie Learned His Lesson

Copyright 2003, W. David Tarver

First Published:  Two River Times, September 26, 2003

In May of this year, I celebrated my 50th birthday with a party in Jamaica. It was a great event for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that I got a chance to spend some time with my good friend Reggie Barnett.

Reggie and I grew up together in Flint, Michigan. I lived on 6th street, and Reggie lived on 7th. Reggie and I played basketball together at Flint Central High School, and we were best friends. Reggie lettered in basketball, track, and football, and set a number of school records along the way. He was also a great student, and he graduated at the top of our high school class.

After high school, Reggie attended Notre Dame University, where he played football for the legendary coach Ara Parsegian. In fact, Reggie played defensive halfback for the 1973 Notre Dame national championship team. Reggie got his degree from Notre Dame, and then went on to Duke University, where he received an MBA and a law degree. After college, Reggie went to work for IBM, where he has remained to this day. He now works as a senior executive for Big Blue back in the Detroit area.

While we were laughing and joking at my birthday party, I couldn't help but recall a disciplinary episode involving Reggie, way back in eighth grade. At the time, Reggie and I were both in Mrs. Bell's English class. Mrs. Bell was a middle-aged white woman, and her class had a pretty even mix of white and black students. Reggie and I were part of the black contingent, and we were confident kids -- sometimes to the point of being cocky.

On one particular day, Mrs. Bell called on Reggie to read a passage from the book. After all these years, I don't remember the exact words, but let's suppose the passage said "The Civil War was a battle between the North and the South". Reggie changed the pronunciation to read, "The Civil war was a battle between the Norf and the Souf". In other words, he substituted "F" for "TH". Now this was something that the kids in our neighborhood commonly did -- it was just our slang. But Mrs. Bell was not having it. She asked Reggie to read the passage again. Again, Reggie said "Norf" and "Souf", making no attempt to soften the F on the end of each word. After one more attempt, Mrs. Bell told Reggie to go and stand in the hallway until he could come up with the proper pronunciation for his assigned passage. Reggie got up, and with a smirk that indicated both contempt and embarrassment, he took his place in the hallway outside Mrs. Bell's classroom.

Mrs. Bell's choice of discipline was interesting, because in those days she had several tools at her disposal. She could have kept Reggie after school and made him clean the chalkboards. She could have sent him to the office to talk with the principal. She could have even sent him to the office to have him paddled!

Mrs. Bell could have ignored Reggie's mispronunciation altogether, assuming "that's just the way black kids talk". But Mrs. Bell knew Reggie. She knew he was a smart kid, and she knew how to get to him. Making him stand there in the hallway, within sight of the rest of us, and within earshot of the classroom activities, turned out to be the most effective discipline for Reggie. They say there are many ways to get a lesson across, and on that day, Reggie got his.

So Reggie went on after that day to great success -- in sports, in school, in business, and in life. I have often wondered if that incident in Mrs. Bell's class might have triggered something in Reggie -- something that spurred him on to the great success he ultimately had. Whether that was the case or not, neither of us ever forgot the incident, and neither of us ever forgot Mrs. Bell.

On the evening of my birthday party in Jamaica, Reggie and I were sitting out on the terrace talking after dinner. The winds were gentle and warm, and the good food and drink had us in good spirits. I said to Reggie, "I'm glad you came down here, man. Thanks for coming to my birFday party". Reggie laughed. "That's a good one, Dave".