The story of Vietnam soldier Mark Elklund has a message for all of us.
At Saint Mary’s Catholic School in Morris, Minnesota, there was a third grade class. The Sister teaching the students in the class loved all of them, but one student was very special.
Mark Elklund always looked very neat and had a happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his mischievousness delightful to his teacher. But he also talked incessantly. Every time, his teacher corrected him for talking in class, he would say very sincerely, “Thank you for correcting me, Sister”.
Having heard Mark’s response to her correction too many times, one day her patience grew thin and she made a novice teacher’s mistake. She looked at Mark and said, “If you say one more word, I am going to tape your mouth shut!” Not even ten seconds later, another student named Chuck blurted out, “Mark is talking again.”
Since Mark’s teacher had stated the punishment in front of the class, she had to act on it. She opened her desk drawer, removed the tape, and then she walked to Mark’s desk and placed two pieces of tape in the shape of an X across his mouth.
After her return to the front of the class, the teacher glanced at Mark to make sure he was okay. Then he winked at her and she started laughing. The entire class cheered as she walked back to Mark’s desk, removed the tape, and shrugged her shoulders. Mark’s first words were, “Thank you for correcting me, Sister.”
A few years later, his third grade teacher moved up to teach ninth grade math. And a few years after that, she got Mark again. He did not talk as much in the ninth grade as he had in the third.
One Friday, the mood in Mark’s math class was not right. The class had worked hard all week on a concept in the “new math”, and all of the students were frustrated with themselves and edgy with each other.
The teacher had to change the mood in her classroom. She asked each of her students to take out a piece of paper and list the names of the other students in the class, leaving a space between each name. Then she instructed them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each classmate and write it down.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote the name of each student on a piece of paper and copied what everyone else had said about each other.
On Monday, she gave each student his list. Before long, every student was smiling. She heard her students saying, “Really? I never knew that meant anything to anyone” and “I didn’t know others liked me so much”. She knew the lists had changed the mood in the class.
None of the students ever mentioned those lists again in class. However, years later Mark Elklund died as a soldier in Vietnam and his parents insisted that the ninth grade math teacher attend the funeral.
Looking at Mark Elklund in his uniform in his coffin, she only had one thought. “Mark, I would give all the tape in the world if only you would talk to me again.”
After the funeral, Mark’s former ninth grade classmates headed to Chuck’s farmhouse for lunch. There Mark’s parents invited her into a separate room in which she found the students in Mark’s 9th grade math class gathered. His parents showed her a tattered and torn piece of paper that had been taped many times that had been found in Mark’s wallet when he died. It was his list from math class. And each of his classmates had kept theirs too. Each former student told the Sister how much their lists meant to them and thanked her.
Vietnam may in the past for most of us, but this message in this story still holds true. Please tell the people you care about how you feel about them before it is too late.
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Veterans, do you need any help?
Have you ever overreacted like this?
I agree with the eagle that bald is beautiful!
For the love of lost loved ones, please be kind…
