The Accidental Teacher: Bang Their Heads Together: Chapter 2

We came in from recess like any other day. As we entered the room Q and M, who were walking on my right and left, just started swinging at each other with everything they had. I yelled, "Stop!" At the same time  I tried to push them apart and ended up holding them up on the wall by their necks. They kept trying to hit each other and we're demanding, "Let me down!"

I asked, "Are you going to stop hitting each other?" 

Both Q and M sputtered out, "No!" 

"Then I'm not letting you down!" I explained. Finally after a few minutes they finally stopped swinging. 

I decided that their punishment would be sitting together for a week. At a table that was about four feet wide they must of been six feet apart. I had told them that for the entire week if one got in trouble, they both got in trouble. For the first few days, every time I turned around I heard, "Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!" When I looked back at them they would be there, sitting still, as far apart as they could be. 

About half way through the week after dismissing the kids an older lady (Q's grandmother I believe, she never actually introduced herself.) walked up to me and demanded, "What you doing sittin' two boys together knowing they're just pound each other every time you turn around?"

I told her, "Well, ma'am, I figure I can't bang their heads together, so I might as well let them do it for me."

She leaned back, started to laugh and said, "You're a pretty smart man!"  As she walked away laughing, she shook her head saying, "Let them bang their heads together for me. You're a smart man. That's the funniest they I've heard in a long time!"

I never saw her again and Q and M hardly looked at each other for the rest of the year. 

That was long ago and a different era in education. That method didn't work for all kids who fought, for example "fightin' friends". Fightin' friends fight, busting each others lips popping each other in the eye, but, in fifteen minutes they're laughing and messing off like nothing happened. But, for Q and M, sitting together taught them to leave each other alone.