@cicerone imposter,
Quote:I must have been a bad student. The teacher hit my hand with a ruler when I was in the 5th or 6th grade.
You remind me a real event that became a joke in school.
The teacher in the room of Geography used to have his flat, thick wood stick to hit on the hands of students who forgot to make or bring their homework.
As the students learned to low their hands at the same speed of the stick directed to the palm in order to make lesser the impact, the teacher managed to make the student to direct his eyes to a different direction.
The room of geography had the map of the fifty states all around on the top of the walls. So, the teacher always locating himself on his desk area, told the student to look at the map of Arkansas, which was located on the back of the student when facing the teacher.
In this way, the student never knew when the impact of the stick will happen in the palm of his hand.
So, the students learned the expression "look at Arkansas" which were the words of the teacher before punishing the student.
But, one day, the teacher had five students in line waiting for the punishment because they didn't bring their homework.
The teacher called the first of them, asked him to rise his arm directing it to him with the palm up, and his words "look at Arkansas".
The student directed his eyes over the teacher's head. The teacher said again, "look at Arkansas", and the student make a greater effort looking over the teacher's head.
In that moment, the teacher realized that something was wrong. He looked at the wall in front of him and the map of Arkansas wasn't there.
The teacher looked at his back and saw the map of Arkansas hanging on the wall where his desk was located.
The teacher laughed and laughed by the trick made by an unknown student, and he forgave the punishment that day. He left the map of Arkansas hanging in its new place.
In the next class, to the ones who forgot their homework, the teacher started a new phrase before the punishment, "look at Mississippi", which was the map of the state located on the side of the missing map of Arkansas.