Mr. Holland, the feared, but respected headmaster, strode into the quickly silencing classroom of primary school children. Mr. Holland didn’t take lessons. This was most unusual. Where was the English teacher?
The class watched in silence as Mr. Holland stood at the front of the classroom, watching us, waiting, silently.
Minutes seemed to pass and nobody said a word, nobody moved. Mr. Holland was silent. Watching. Waiting.
I was recognised as the brightest child the school had ever had, but I too watched, I too waited. I froze. I didn’t think. I was in the grip of authority and paralysed before it.
Eventually, after what seemed like half an hour, but what in reality was probably no more than two minutes, Maurice, a perfectly ordinary boy with a slightly rebellious streak, lifted up his desk lid, took out a book and started reading.
Mr. Holland shattered the silence, “Five house points for Maurice!”
He never told us why, because we got it, we all got it once the leader, the unlikely hero Maurice had shown us. I have never forgotten that primary school lesson and I never will.
Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. That might never happen. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what you can do. You don’t always need permission. Don’t wait to seize the moment. Someone will seize it before you.
{ 3 comments }
Fabulous.
Great lesson – hope Mr. Holland is still around to see his intelligence is still appreciated
A great lesson and one that I have always lived by too.
Life is what you make it, so make it happen.
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