Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do

INTERMISSION TO PART II

And heaven knows
I took the blows
and did it my way.

IF WE MUST PUNISH people for consensual crimes, I suggest an alternate method.

Here's the idea, as reported in the 1993 edition of the World Almanac and Book of Facts:

Chicago teacher Bruce Janu deals with kids who are late to his class or talk out of turn by sentencing them to the Frank Sinatra Detention Club. Students are forced to listen to tapes of "My Way," "Love and Marriage," and other Sinatra classics. There is no talking and no homework.

The students "just hate it," Janu says. "I get a grimace, like, `I can't believe I'm listening to this, something my parents and grandparents listened to.' I get a lot of rolls of the eyes." Janu says the kids can sing along, but no one has.

A senior got two "Franks" in a day—60 whole minutes of Sinatra. "I just got to where I couldn't stand it," he said.

Copyright © 1996 Peter McWilliams & Prelude Press