Ms. Buxom is among the last of an old breed of teachers whose educational methods once included slaps on young knuckles with a wooden ruler or the tugging of unruly children by their ears. Some habits are hard to kick. Rumor has it Ms. Buxom still carries a ruler in her bag and has used it on occasion at Borden’s Five & Dime when checkout clerks have given her the wrong change. Still, her classrooms turned out lots of smart and upstanding citizens, though they will sometimes flinch and glance anxiously over their shoulders during public recitations of The Pledge of Allegiance. Under her leadership as principal, Baybury Shores Grammar School gained a statewide reputation among school nutritionists for having the highest number of students to eat all their beets at lunchtime.
When informed of the School Board’s decision to name the school the Josephine F. Buxom Grammar School, Ms. Buxom issued a memo stating that she is not dead yet, she has no intention of being dead anytime soon, and if there is a public ceremony to rename the school everybody must stand up straight and face the front of the room.
COPYRIGHT © 2021 by Parker M. Wilcox. All Rights Reserved.