Painting Lesson

PAINTING LESSON

Before I knew the medical term for 'bed-wetting' & before I began studying Hypnotherapy an 'accident' happened. At the time I was teaching a Grade 3 class at the multicultural school in Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea. Year - 1975. My class had students from Australia mostly. Local kids & teachers shared the same campus as the 'international' kids & we had assemblies, played sports & went on excursions together.

One afternoon before we started painting class I showed the students how to wash their brushes in the water bucket. How to fill their brushes with paint & cup the paint-filled brush with the other hand so that other people would not get dabs on their clothes & cause mothers to get upset. Everyone nodded & said that they understood & knew exactly what to do. I had a sheet & did a quick demonstration.

Several bold students keen to impress their classmates & me also demonstrated their ability to collect paint on their brushes & get to their tables without spilling a drop on the floor & without dabbing paint on each other. “Well done!” I said & the others clapped their hands. We all knew how that should be done properly.

Everyone got busy. I was busy too when the biggest boy in the class came up to me & stood next to me. He was distressed & unable to speak. He stood holding his brush in front of him without cupping his hand over the tip. As I looked at him I assumed immediately that there had been an accident. So I called the class to order & began to make a statement when I noticed a pool of 'water' at his feet & that his shorts were wet & that his legs were too.

I could see steam rising & smell the odor. I had already said something like, "it's important to be very careful." Having taken the situation in I told the student that he was to get a mop from the caretaker & wipe the floor & then go to the principal's office & ask for another pair of shorts.

He followed my instructions & the rest of us kept working on our paintings. As each student finished work paintings were put up on a pegged line to dry.
We cleaned up the work place, put the materials away & wiped the table tops with damp cloths & the floor with the mop that had been rinsed off. Tomorrow would be exhibition & discussion day & we would be writing stories about our paintings.

I reflected on the incident that afternoon & thought no more about it until 3 weeks later when the school had an 'open day' - parents & friends came along to see students & teachers at work. After lunch I was supervising a ball game when the lady principal shouted across the playground in her very loud voice that "Mr & Mrs Brown want to see you!" My immediately feeling of apprehension quickly dissipated as a very large mum & dad came striding over to meet me for the very first time. They shook my hand with great vigor & wanted to know what happened at school 3 weeks ago.

I told them about the painting lesson & the accident & what had happened. The said they knew something had happened that day because their son had stopped wetting the bed & had not wet the bed since. He'd grown up in other ways too. They went on to say that they had made several trips to Sydney & Melbourne to see doctors & specialists about their son’s difficulty & had tried various other cures without success. It appears that something inexplicable happened during our painting lesson that day.

Replies:

Re:Painting Lesson, by Hephzibah Kaplan, 11/22/01 Re:Painting Lesson, by Lindsay Smith, 11/22/01

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