Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for June 15, 2023

Wallace in panel 3 gave me a chuckle or three.

Common misconception.

That teachers have real lives. That’s a false memory planted when they’re exuded from the building in the Fall.

Today’s strip reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip which brought Miss Wormwood back into Calvin’s world during the summer:-

Mom: I saw your teacher in the store today.

Calvin: You saw Miss Wormwood! She shops in the store!

Mom: Of course, she does. What did you think she did?

Calvin: I thought teachers slept in their coffins all through the summer.

“So I took a journey

Threw my world into the sea

With me went the teacher

Who found fun instead of me"

You never get over the first time you see a teacher outside of school.

Lying dormant, until the fall, when they awaken, hungry, for little kids returning to school! I see a lucrative horror film franchise in this.

My kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers lived in town, so seeing them was no big deal.

If that’s what Wallace thought, why did he ask? Was Rose practicing ventriloquism?

I can’t ever remember seeing any of my teachers outside of school. Maybe the paradigm shift was too much for me.

Was 14 and saw my algebra teacher that summer at the lake in a bikini. Scrambled my brains whenever I saw her the following school year.

Travel. Hobbies. Really? It’s more like take a second job for the summer (because most teachers aren’t paid a decent wage), participate in continuing education classes (it’s required to keep the job) and then head back into the classroom well before the students return, getting ready for them. There’s no money for travel, there’s not much time for hobbies. We need to start treating our teachers better.

Wallace isn’t letting go of that idea.

One summer after junior high, my English teacher knocked on the door and asked to speak to my mother. You can’t imagine the thoughts that went through my head until it turned out he had a summer job as a door to door salesman!

Not being picky….but,

Why does Wallace ask what she’s going to do if he thinks that she just gets absorbed into the school building and goes dormant?

Wallace sounds like those kids from Leave It Beaver

I still remember my first encounter with a grade school teacher back when I was just a young chick. As I rounded the corner and saw Mrs. Frazier, I stammered: “Mrs. Frazier – what are you doing here?!”

One summer when I was in high school, I took a job with a contractor putting in asphalt driveways; hot, dirty work. On one job, the boss met with the male owner of a very nice house who walked us through what he wanted and we got to work. After maybe 5 or 6 hours we were almost done when we heard the garage door open and out stepped my cute English teacher in shorts, carrying a tray of lemonade and snacks for us. I remember we both suddenly froze for a new minutes on recognizing each other when she suddenly laughingly smiled and said something like “Too bad you didn’t work this hard in class.”

I lived and taught in a tiny community. I went to church with several of my students. I frequently saw them, and their extended family (cousins, uncles, grandparents, and such) at the local Piggly Wiggly.

Either Wallace is a big fan of The X Files or Homer Simpson (when he gets absorbed into the hedge).

My younger sister just retired from teaching. Returned to being a real person IRL Her students are young (pre-K or K): “Tuesday, that was my last days with my kids. I had warned them I would cry when they were singing their songs for families (always gets me) and they thought that was the funniest thing ever. But when I DID cry, they were struck silent, and a little worried. But we all quickly recovered, and there were lots of giggles and smiles seeing photos in the end of year slideshow.”

It’d be fun to live in an unused school. Shoot baskets sometimes. Rollerblade the halls. Big kitchen to cook in. Walk-in freezer for ice cream.