CREATIVITY

Years before there was a strong interest in vocational education, a Wilbur Wright teacher developed a vocational newspaper. It was a creative idea that had never before been done. lie had tips on job interviews, proper dress, apprenticeships, and other things that would help a young person who would soon be seeking employment. Naturally he was proud of his achievement and showed it to an English teacher for comment. The only reply he received was, "You have two grammatical mistakes." He was crushed. What is creative to one mind is grammatically incorrect to another.
 

THE THREATENING LETTERS

It was the night of dress rehearsal when one of the actors asked to talk to the drama teacher privately. "I received this in the mail today," the student said handing the teacher an envelope. The letter, embellished with bloody daggers and cross bones, threatened to kill the student if he appeared in the play. "I'm not going to quit the show, but I thought you should see this in case something happens," he continued.

The next day detectives were called in, and they conferred with Mr. Holmes and several teachers about which students they thought were capable of sending such a letter. The teachers gave the police a list of at least a hundred students. The advisor to the school paper had also received a threatening letter from some one who complained that the athletes received all the attention in the paper while the "good students" were ignored. No one thought that the same person could have sent both letters. The letter to the actor was printed in crayon with grammatical errors and numerous spelling mistakes, one of which was the name of the school. The letter to journalism teacher was just the opposite. There were several pages, single spaced, typewritten, and without a grammatical or spelling mistake. One of the English teachers said that there wasn't a teacher at Wilbur Wright capable of writing the letter, let alone a student. The meeting with the police adjourned without a definite suspect.

After the play there was a party for the cast and crew at the home of one of the students. The same actor asked to see the director in private again. "When I was home changing my clothes, some one exploded a cherry bomb in my front yard and put this in my mail box," he said handing the teacher another note.

The note said, "You have disobeyed my warning and were in the play. Therefore, I am going to burn your car, kill you, and urinate on your grave." The actor wasn't concerned about his own safety, but did take the precaution to park his car on a side street an the other side of town.

The following Monday morning, the police returned and took the threatening letters, plus handwriting samples of several students to the police laboratory at London, Ohio. Handwriting experts examined the evidence, and that afternoon, the police arrested one of our honor students who confessed to writing the letters to the school paper and to the actor. He hated the actor who had belted him with snow balls several years before.

The next day Mr. Holmes called all the teachers to a meeting from their home rooms to discuss the situation with them. Later it was discovered that the honor student who was already back in school, also left his home room and was listening outside the door.