Social Experiment – How My School Teacher Told Me Many Years Ago That The Health Care Bill Is Important

(My class when I was in first grade)

When I was little, I grew up in a small village called Linden. I went to the local school, very imaginatively called “De Linde.” It was a fantastic little school with very nice teachers. As a child, I used to think it was an incredibly big school. I used to get lost on my way to the bathroom. And I remember how I was afraid to leave the classroom on my very first school day, afraid that I would never ever be able to find my class group back. But when I returned there ten years ago as an adult, it all looked tiny and I had to smile when I thought about little Tanja’s worries. I know, it’s all about perspective.

(Me when I was in Kindergarten)

There is one lesson that I will never forget. When I was in 3^rd grade and Easter was coming up, our teacher randomly divided the class into two groups. The winners of her mini lottery ended up at the ‘rich table’. The other kids – including me – got seated at the ‘poor table’. The winners had lots of chocolate and even Coca-Cola, something I wasn’t allowed to drink at home. I was down on my luck when the teacher raffled the table spots off and ended up at the poor table. We got water, stale bread and a few rotten bananas that weren’t even good enough anymore for banana bread. Our teacher studied our behavior. Some sweet kids at the rich table shared their candy and even some Coca-Cola with the children at the poor table. These generous students would grow up to become Democrats or at least, the local Linden version of it. Other kids yelled “I got here first! No! They gave this to me! No, go away, you stinky kid from the poor table.” I will not tell you what the yelling students became when they grew up. All I can say is that some of them are lawyers now. And I am still grateful that our teacher taught me an important lesson that spring day before Easter.