Chapter 1
A pensive Gail Johnson crossed her legs and looked up at the principal, Dave Clark.
Clark was finishing a brief testimonial address about Gail. It was to laud Gail's decision to work as a new teacher at Pearsall High School.
The tall, rangy Clark, his white hair combed down neatly, was relating some of Gail's virtues.
"I think that everyone in society has to admire an idealist," Clark said, looking out at the sea of faces before him.
The other teachers, crowded together in the room, had been sipping coffee and donuts for several minutes and taking the opportunity to look Gail over.
"Well, this young lady, Gail Johnson, represents idealism to the fullest. Up until now, she had been working for three years as a secretary at a large advertising agency. Even though she was in the position to eventually become a member of the officers' ranks within that company, she chose to instead pierce the frontiers of the teaching ranks."
At that point Clark turned and looked at Gail, who shyly lowered her eyes. If there was one thing that made Gail nervous, it was hearing somebody praise her. She wanted to be judged strictly on her good work and did not feel that she was entitled to praise for anything else. She felt that accomplishments were something that she owed society in the beginning. She was honored for a purpose, to attempt to benefit mankind in any tangible way that she could.
She had worked for the advertising agency until she reached the point where she felt she could contribute more to humanity elsewhere.
That was why she had secured a teaching position at Pearsall High.
As Dave Clark continued to laud Gail, she thought about the first time she had come in to talk to him. He had questioned her at great length, wondering if she possessed that necessary fiber to become a teacher.
The longer that he talked to her, the more impressed he had become, and the conversation was resolved with Clark offering her a teaching position at Pearsall.
Now he was wrapping up his commentary:
"I think that Gail will serve as an inspiring ideal to all of us. This young girl, who has beauty of face and figure along with a good formal educational background, has cast her lot with us here at Pearsall instead of pursuing a higher paying commercial job. She was determined to see to it that youngsters in that often precarious developmental stage of life have the opportunity of utilizing their God given potentials to the greatest degree possible. I think that this fine young lady, this sterling young American, deserves a sturdy round of applause."
At that point all of the teachers in the room burst into spontaneous applause Clark asked for.
Gail was more embarrassed than ever. But she did manage to get up from her chair long enough to reply to Clark's eulogy.
"Thank you! I'm really pleased to be working with you," Gail said.
More applause followed but the teachers were already picking up their notebooks and purses.
"All right, folks, it's time to go back to teaching." Dave Clark smiled. "You're all dismissed. That is, except for Miss Johnson. Gail, I'd like to speak with you alone for a few minutes."
"Yes, sir," Gail replied moving toward Dave Clark's desk.
The office quickly emptied as the instructors filed out, engaging in a loud buzz of conversation.
The door closed after the last teacher exited, after which Dave Clark looked at Gail and smiled.
"Sit down, please, my dear," he said. "Thank you."
"You know, my dear. I meant every word I said to those teachers. I think that often we lose sight of why we're here. I mean, you get bogged down in the difficulty of the assignment. It isn't easy to get your message across to a young student who is very often at the most rebellious stage of his or her life. But we stick in there and try. I felt that the faculty needed a little bit of a pep talk, and for that reason I made certain that I was as glowing in my tribute as possible. Not that I didn't mean every word of it, because I certainly did. It was just that I felt it important to communicate to them just how vital it is for the individual teacher to keep on striving. I thought you were a good example, a young girl who was doing very well at an advertising agency. Through it all, you wanted more. You wanted an opportunity to help cultivate young minds."
"That's why I'm here," Gail nodded.
"Bless you, my dear. There's just one thing I want to talk to you about on a very serious note."
"Yes, sir."
"Please knock off the sir." Dave smiled. "I'd also appreciate it if you'd call me Dave."
"Yes, Dave."
"Now I'm really going to level with you. You're an absolutely beautiful young woman, Gail."
"Thank you," Gail replied, a bit uncomfortably.
"I'm saying that for one reason. We've got to be realistic. All idealism aside, I wonder if you're aware of just how knowledgeable our young men are about sex when they are in high school."
"Oh, I just know about the young men I went to school with." She laughed. "I don't imagine that there's been any great change since then."
"May I ask when you graduated from high school, Gail?"
"Certainly. I graduated in nineteen-sixty-seven."
"Now, there you are," Dave nodded. "That proves that you're out of touch with the realities of the moment, my dear. Things have changed tremendously over the last seven years. Believe me, because I know. I've been principal of this school for five years, and was vice principal for ten years prior to that. I've seen the changes, and they're been most comprehensive. As a matter-of-fact, I can honestly say that they have been unbelievable in terms of magnitude. Just over the course of the last three years I've seen a tremendous change."
"In their attitudes?"
"I mean that these young men, and the young women as well, are probably at least as knowledgeable as you or I in the domain of sex. A lot of them are probably more knowledgeable. I'm speaking for myself, at any rate, because I certainly don't know how much you know or don't know about the subject, and it isn't within the grounds of propriety even for me to ask. I'm just trying to tell you one thing. The fact that you are such a beautiful young woman can pose great problems."
"I can be firm when I want to be." Gail smiled. "If you recall, sir, I'm sorry ... I mean, Dave, I did work at an office that contained a lot of men. A number of them were absolute wolves. I've done a pretty good job of fending them off."
"Yes, I'm sure you can display firmness when you have to." Dave Clark nodded. "If I felt otherwise, I wouldn't even have considered hiring you. There are no two ways about it. The name of the game is still discipline, and once it breaks down you don't have a classroom, you have a zoo. I'm with you there, honey, but I'm driving at something beyond that. Believe it or not, it's going to be a lot tougher to fend off some of these young bucks than it was for you to get rid of some adult wolves over at the advertising agency."
"You really think so?"
"That's right!" Dave nodded. "We've had a lot of girls over here from the secretarial ranks. A few of them had excelled to the point of breaking into the executive oligarchy. But most had worked as secretaries during summer session and things of that sort. They said that there was really no comparison. It's must tougher dealing with these young men here."
"But why is that?" Gail asked.
"There's a very good reason. There's nothing like youth when it comes to determination. Once a person gets a little older, he learns to roll with the punches. I mean, he .accepts his share of defeats and victories. Well, these young men at this school, the ones who will pose the problems, they're in a different category. They don't even think about defeat. A lot of them have had a number of affairs, and they like to think that they can score with anything in skirts. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to sound crude, I'm only trying to get the point across."
"Of course, Dave, I understand that, and I appreciate your attitude."
"You see, my dear, we're in a very tough situation. A very difficult one. At this particular point in time, with all the tensions in the world, sex release has come to take on additional meaning. Now it's a panacea, a way to escape from some of the problems of the world. That's exactly the way these young men are reacting, even though they are not as aware of the psychological ramifications as somebody like I am. But the problem is nonetheless there, and they are going to pursue you diligently-and don't think they are going to be necessarily be crude, either. A number of them are very smooth. They'll come on with every bit as much sophistication as the smoothest and suavest man in your office would have."
"Is that really so?"
"It certainly is, and it stems from the fact that they've had so much experience. As I said, age is no barrier. Get that out of your mind. I'm telling you all this because I want you to succeed, and if you walk into one of those classrooms totally unprepared to grapple with these forces, you'll never make a teacher. I'm just warning you, because I want you to be prepared at the very outset."
"I really appreciate that."
"Remember, keep that guard of yours up. The kid who sits in back of the classroom and is the quietest, who seems to be the shyest, might be the man who is going to pursue you the most diligently. Keep that in mind as well."
"I will."
"I guess that covers it!" Clark smiled. "I have nothing more to say. I do hope one thing."
"What's that?"
"That you don't get the wrong idea and think that I was trying to scare you."
"Not at all."
"I was just trying to warn you concerning what might transpire. That's all. Every time we hire a young woman I give her just about the same pitch. There's one variation in your case, though. I made it much more strongly, since you do happen to be the most beautiful young woman that we've ever hired."
"Thank you very much." She smiled shyly at the compliment.
"You're quite welcome, and good luck, my dear."
"Thank you," Gail said softly, getting up from the chair and walking out of Dave Clark's office. As she strolled down the hall toward the classroom, Gail was more determined than ever to get her message across to the students.
She wouldn't tolerate any insubordination. She wasn't about to let any of these young guys get to first base with her. She was going to instruct the students and make them better citizens. That's why she had come to Pearsall High School in the first place.