Unwillingly to School

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances…..

……And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school……”

As You Like It:

William Shakespeare (Act 2, Scene 7)

We all need to be reminded by Shakespeare that all the world is a stage. Last week a headline in BBC World News caught my eye: a 10-year old boy who lives outside Monterrey super-glued his hand to his bedstead because he did not want to go back to school after the Christmas break. He had his 15 minutes of fame on the world stage. Or was it 15 seconds?

In my book The Cockroach Catcher, there are stories of a girl who pretended she was three and a half for nearly a year in order not to attend school; a boy who hiccupped for a long long time for the same reason; and a few others who had school attendance problems for one reason or another.

Now, have you ever heard of a child who glued himself to a bed in order not to go to a Pizza or Burger place? Do you wonder why?