The Bad Word

A childhood experience of a cuss word that got me into trouble.

Since all of my past articles have been informative to some extent, I figured I'd do something completely different by writing a more personal piece that has little to do with popular culture.

One of the most embarrassing moments of my childhood happened when I was in third grade. It was about 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon on a warm spring day in March 1992. We had run ahead of schedule and had some free time of our own for about a half an hour until the bell rang. During this time, I was having a conversation with a group of kids at the neighboring desks.

I think we had talked a little about television because I remember talking about shows on Fox at the time like The Simpsons and Drexell's Class. Somewhere in our conversation, I said a bad word. I honestly forget what word I used, what letter it started with, how I used it in a sentence, or even what it meant. These kids gasped in horror. One of them gave me this gesture by rubbing one of his index fingers against the other, which of course means “shame on you.” They all got out of their desks and immediately ran to the teacher who was at her desk. I still sat in mine, confused and humiliated about what was going on.

One of the kids ran back to my desk and said, in a snotty tone of voice, “Adam, Mrs. Woods wants to see you after class. She says you’re in big trouble.” Kids these days can get away with saying any bad word, but when I was a boy, if the most mild of bad words like “damn” or “hell” was uttered in school, the kid who said that would have to have a serious talk with the teacher or even the principal.

The afternoon bell rang and all the kids walked out of the classroom to go home for the day. I was still seated at my desk. Mrs. Woods was still seated in hers, grading papers. She called my name, and wagged her finger signaling me to approach her desk. I took a large breath and walked slowly to Mrs. Woods' desk. My heart was pounding through my chest and my stomach was turning like a washing machine.

“Yes Mrs. Woods?” I asked. She sat there with a stern expression on her face. I was asked to sit in the chair next to her desk facing her.

“Do you know why I asked you to stay after class?” She asked. I turned my head to her left, intentionally avoiding eye contact with her.

“No,” I replied.

“Adam, Look at me! You are not talking to the chalkboard!”

I slowly turned my head back to my teacher.

“You said a bad word in class today, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Adam! Don’t lie to me!”

“I, I don’t know. What did I say?”

She told me the bad word I used, which I still cannot remember, and explained its meaning. I tried to apologize to her for using it.

“Little boys do not use bad words! How would you like to have your mouth washed out with soap?”

“No! I didn’t mean to say it!”

For my punishment, as an extra homework assignment, I had to write a paragraph on a piece of paper on what I did in class that day and why it was inappropriate behavior. She gave me the instructions for writing this paragraph on a small yellow sheet of paper. When I left the classroom, I folded it up and stowed it in my pocket.

My mom was parked in the front parking lot of the school ready to pick me up. She asked me why I was a few minutes late. I told her that I was looking for a paper for one of my homework assignments in my desk and that it was really messy inside.

That evening, I was in my room sitting at my desk working on my other homework. My mom came in to check up on me. She discovered the yellow sheet of paper on my desk that I had taken out of my pocket. She picked it up off my desk and took her glasses off to read it to herself. I sat there as still as a rock at my desk. I tried to change the subject, but she really wanted to know what it was all about. I had to come clean with the bad word incident, which I reluctantly did. She sighed in disappointment. It was bad enough that my teacher chewed me out earlier that day.

My mom was not only angry about what I did, but the fact that I had lied to her about my homework. She said she would tell my dad about this too when he came home. After coming home and being told of the incident, my dad gave me a little lecture about bad word usage and how some bad words can hurt people, which I really did not want to sit through. I don’t know where I picked up that word, whether it was from television (probably from a show on Fox since it was considered Trash TV by many), a movie, or an adult conversation.

Both my parents made me do the extra homework assignment. Instead of writing only a paragraph, my dad made me write a whole page. As an extra punishment, I was not allowed to watch TV or play video games for a whole week.

Comments

There are some kids in my High School that cuss but they never got into trouble.

Those Punisments Suck ass you should have done stuff with out getting caught it's like on the movie a christmas story Ralphie said "ohhhh Fuuudge"
and his dad sends him to the car and when his dad got in the car he whispered the bad word to his mom and at home she put a bar of soap in his mouth
That's why I do stuff without getting caught

My grandma has a similar story. She used to be a librarian a long time ago, and one day, a teacher and her students came in to her library and one of them said a bad word ( I believe it was the F word).

Students: Teacher, [Insert Name Here] said a bad word.

Teacher: Oh, what did he say?

Students: He said #$%!% !

yeh i remember those days of gettin in trouble for bad words...of even now my mom will look at me with those infamous "mom" looks...haha...i never had to do extra homework, though i did have to wash my mouth with soap a few times...needless to say i got the point quickly.

Damn i hate tattletales.

Hah wow, all that over a bad word? Whenever I said a bad word in elementary school all i'd get was a dirty look from one of the teachers.

that teacher, bitch please...

I personally tasted so many different soaps for my foul mouth that i could tell you what soap was what if you fed 'em to me blindfolded. well, i could tell you if you were using the formulas they used in the eighties and early nineties. By that time the grown ups had given up and me and my potty mouth went about our merry motherf**king way!!
P.S. Irish Spring doesn't taste so bad once you get used to it!!!

I enjoyed reading your article v. much! I remember when "crap" and "shut up" were bad words. Hah.

It also reminded me of a time when I was in third grade and some boys in my class were calling one of my friends a lesbian. I remember later on telling my parents about the incident, very nonchalantly. They both looked at eachother, shocked at what I had said. (I don't remember what they said to me though.) I didn't even know what a lesbian was! (And didn't find out until years later.)

Geez... I didn't start swearing until I was around 13-14... I remember the first time I swore around one of my friends (who is very proper) I was, like, 13 and called my teacher a bitch. And she said, "Amanda! Don't worry, I'm not mad at you... just very dissapointed." I was like... Are you serious? She sounded like my mom or something.

It IS ridiculous. When I was younger "Shut up!" was HORRIBLE!!! And so was "Oh my God." Those were the naughty words. My little sister's friends said "fuck" in 4th grade...

Normally, children in the 90's would respond by saying, "OOOOOHH!" when something like that would happen.

Back in my elementary school words like "shut up" and "stupid" were considered like the worst words you could say! One time in kindergarten I said something worse:

Since I was an immigrant, I didn't know every English word. I did something I wasn't suppose to on the playground (I forget what) and the yard duty told me to sit on the bench for time out.

I said "Bench?" asking her because I didn't know what it meant.

"Did you just call me a bitch?" she yells.

"Bitch?" I repeat not knowing the word.

"That's it," she yells. "You're going to the office!"

That was one confusing day! And as I look back at it I say, "Man, that yard duty was a bitch!"

Great Article, I like how you decided not to include the bad word inorder to emphasize the ambiguity and the odd behaviour of your peers, parents, and the teacher. I thought it was funny how they gave you so much hell for it, yet to this day, you can't remember the word, or even know what the word means, or even the context.

It was sort of like this one time in grade school where we were practicing Onomatopoeias and I said splat. My teacher did a 180! nearly flipped and she told me it was a bad word. I said it was from the board game splat! remember splat guys? one where you were a fly, and all the pieces were made out of play dough and someone would splat them, if you landed on the wrong spot. Anyways my friend said the same thing and he got in bigger trouble for it, cause he wanted to know why it was such a bad word.

As I grew up, I found out that damn was actually short for damnation, and other words like fag is actually just a bundle of sticks with a negative conotation. But to this day, I still don't know why "Splat" is such a bad word. The fact that, you were in school, they should at least teach you what the word means THEN explain why you shouldn't use it.

looking forward to the rest of your articles

Fuck that kid who ratted on you I always get ratted
by girls

dang ahh i never got caught swearing in school

Ah, it brings back my own memory, but it was 6th grade, and I remembered what I said (Go to Hell!!) and it was because some girls were chucking rocks at my head and face (with intention to injury me enough that I wouldn't be back at school for a while). Sad thing is I got punished for telling them to go to Hell (and its a PLACE so it doesn't make it vulgar), but they get away with trying to give me a concussion. I don't get it either.

One thing I must say though is you guess you picked it off of TV. I seriously doubt that, because nearly every cuss word I've learned.... Was from my parents. And I bet if you surveyed loads of people you'd find the same to be true.

Your article inspired me to persuade my principal to implement a STRINGENT profanity policy in my HS, since a lot of teens my age swear! Although the parental punishment was harsh to some (even to me, really), I believe that it was enough to learn from your morally offensive mistake. I wish more parents and teachers would discipline their children (well, in a less harsh way, really) if they ever said a bad word.

Hasn't the heart pounding situation happened to us all? I cursed in the seventh grade.Omg I used to curse all the time. And the teacher said if I cursed one more time she'd suspend me from school. And I was like in my head this isn't the first grade. I still curse it was no big deal around friends and family really. In 8th grade and in high school the teachers cursed sometimes. Even at students.

Something kinda similar happened to me in the second grade. At some point I had seen someone give someone else the middle finger, but I didn't know what it meant at the time, I didn't even realize it was bad. One time I did it and a bunch of kids freaked out. Then one of them told me what it meant and I felt so ashamed and embarrassed. Nobody told on me though, for which I was very thankful. Being ashamed was enough punishment for me.

I think the punishment you got was way too harsh, considering you didn't even know what you did wrong. If something like that happened with my kid, I'd probably handle it quite a bit differently.

heheheheheheheheheheheehehehe kl

hahaaha...

I do think thats really a harsh punishment for saying such a mild word. The kids at my school couldnt care less what you said, and my own parents just told me not to it again, even though I did curse in front of them many times (not at once though!). I really think its the adults fault for not teaching kids that certain words are not apporate useage for their age.

You make such a good point, These days kids get away with swearing in front of teachers, and other stuff, but back then we used get in trouble just for saying the mildest words, heck I wasn't even aloud to say crap in front of adults without getting in trouble. I think Teachers these days are not as experienced as they were back then.

I remember doing almost the same thing. My cousin and I dared each other to say I word we though was dirty (it was actually just "eat my shorts"

in front of the adult dinner table. I took the bet, thinking I was some huge rebel. In reality I think I just confused them. Great article for jogging memories.

Ya'll COMPLETELY missed the author's point. [IMHO] Kids should NOT say curse words and get away with it. I would like to know how this experience affected his future actions. Did you say any more curse words in school? I bet not. Not only does it make other parents uncomfortable when a child says something vulgar, but most don't want THEIR kid to pick it up. It shouldn't be funny when a kid spews out obscenities. It should be sad, most children [like in Adam's case] don't understand the meaning, and say it only because they hear it from TV and adults, etc.
My case in point being, kids don't get in trouble for saying vulgar offensive words and phrases, BUT can get suspended if they express faith in their religion [whatever it may be]
I disagree with you others who commented so far. the reason your mom bans certain words is probably because she wants to be respected and not have you make her feel embarassed. I DON'T think the teacher was being too harsh. The kids maybe could have minded their own business, but that's kids for you. honestly, I probably would have told on you too, but i was raised by my gma who taught me the REASON not to say bad words instead of just punishing me. Your teacher probably didn't beleive that you didn't understand the word and just had to do what she had to do. sorry this is so long, but those comments just hit me the wrong way. thumbs up on your article.

Yeah, what a bunch of tattletale buttholes!

Wow that sucks meh its not like you ment it god those adults are too harsh and that teacher what a bitch and those kids you where talking with they suck too tatiltales.

Good article. This is one of the reasons why being an adult is great...You can curse in front of your parents and get away with it. Hell, you can even do it at work if your store allows it.

There are some words my mom doesn't want me to use around her, like "fuck" and various racial epithets, but she's okay with words like "shit", "bastard", "damn", "Hell" and "crap".

It's good being an adult.