Mrs. Wagher's Rules

Dear Kind Readers,
I've been blessed with some adversity of late.
Included were a couple of hospital stays that put a kink in my usual writing routine.
So for now I'm continuing to revise some older posts that are full of typos and other errors.
Here's one from five years ago that had lots.

Bless you for your patience. Hope to be back at it full geezer strength soon.
Thank you especially for the kind comments. They give me hope that I may still be of use.
May Heavenly Father always hold you close.

***************
Mrs. Wagher's Rules

I’ve never been a fan, as a teacher or a parent, of having lots of rules.
It’s always seemed better to teach procedures instead.
Procedures simply are the way we do things in our particular classroom or family.

For instance, at school, if you want your paper graded and posted, it goes in the tray by the door, never on my desk.
Everyone understands that if you put it anywhere but the tray it may magically disappear and no amount of "I put it on your desk, Mz Dub! " will get you credit.

At home, if you’re going out on Friday night, tell us where you’ll be, when you expect to be in, and be sure to call if you’ll be late.
Everybody knows, including your friends, that if you're late and don't call you may be embarassed by your father who's come looking for you in the wee hours after the one when you said you'd be home.
That sort of thing.

So we never had curfews for our own kids and the rules in my classroom were generally only two. The rest were procedures.
These were the rules.

Mrs. Wagher's Rules
     1. Do your job.
     2. Let everyone else do theirs.

I never found a classroom situation from pencil sharpening to spit wads that wasn’t covered by these two simple sentences.

However at some schools it was policy to post a detailed list of every single expectation. This included hoops to jump should you need the bathroom. They wanted specifics. Administrators would look for them when coming in to evaluate the teacher.

This was terribly annoying but I came up with a list that was dutifully posted.
Not even one has anything to do with permission to go to the bathroom.
And because these rules were right there in front of me every day I also decided to used them as required lesson plans. Two birds you know.

Anyway the list was based on years of observing my kids and the problems they faced. Many of which, it seemed to me, occurred because nobody was modeling basic fundamentals about how to live a productive life.
Sadly, some of my students lived with the effects of drugs, alcohol, incarceration, and promiscuity in their parents and siblings every day.

We had many an interesting discussion on these topics I can assure you.
Here they are. They're not listed in order of importance.

Mrs. Wagher’s Rules That Lead to a Happy life

1. Treat every person you meet the way you want to be treated.
    This one's been around a while.
    It's in direct opposition to "Get yours first then get out fast," which was the favorite
    philosophy of one of my students.

2. Don’t ever do ANYTHING that might get you sent to jail.
    (And perhaps not even the principal.)
    Don’t Hang Around People Who Do.

3. Get someone wonderful to marry you.
    Treat this person right. Don't cheat. Don't get divorced.
    Hint: Remember that wonderful people usually like to marry someone who's also
    that way. This can mean a lot of work for you.
    Hint Hint: You probably won’t find wonderful hanging out on a bar stool.  

4. Be of service.
    Do this every day.
    Help other people, animals, the earth, whatever.
    Just lend a hand.
    Your own happiness depends on this.

5. Don’t do drugs. Ever.
    Don’t drink alcohol if you're underage.
    Then, as an adult, if you must choose to use alcohol at all
    never drink to excess.
    No matter what your age never drink even a little and then drive.
    Smoking isn’t a good idea either.

6. Remember that whatever else you become matters less than being a good
    spouse and parent.
    Make this a priority. It will be hard, inconvenient, and expensive but still do it.

7. Have fun with your family.
    Have more fun with them more often than with any of the other people you know.
    If you have to sacrifice to pay for the fun, do it.
    Don’t put this off.

8.  Get a piece of paper that says you know how to do something that pays well.
     Try to make this something you like to do.
     This could be a college diploma or a trade license.
     Doctor or plumber, it doesn't matter.
 
 9.   Learn how to work.
       Show up on time. Show up every time you're supposed to show up.
       Don't goof off. Don't quit until the job's done.
       Then Get Up And Go To Work Every Single Day Even When You Don’t Want To.

 10.   Believe.
         Find the truth. Have faith. Go to church.
         A church that teaches people to love and serve others will lead toward
         happiness.
         (Research backs this one up.)

11.  Learn how to do some useful things.  (Cook, fix a car, build a cabinet, sew, etc.)
       Keep learning more useful things all your life.
       This will be a blessing more often than you can imagine.

12.  Learn how to handle money.
       Don’t go into debt.
       Save even if you don’t make much.
       Give money away regularly.

13. Never forget that casual sex and pornography will not lead to
      happiness.


Of course these rules are not the same ones I could post for a class of students who were all members of the church.

For them I could say that the first rule of happiness would be to pattern their lives on the Savior.
Have faith in Christ, learn of Him, and follow His teachings always.
This leads to joy in this life and for all eternity.

But for those of Father's children of many faiths, or perhaps no faith at all, who came through my door each day, the class list of simple ideas proved to be useful.
Some of my students even found them revolutionary.
And one or two were kind enough to say they made a difference.
I hope they still do.