That article sounds about right.
I started carrying a pocket knife when I was in the fourth grade.
To many these days, they would be calling the law for child abuse, neglect public endangerment and any other host of adjectives, nouns or pronouns that they could think of.
But to us, was just ordinary.
When I was in the cub scouts, all my other cub scout buddies had their little 1 to 3 bladed pocket knives. Usually dull enough that you couldn't cut paper with, but to us, it was a sign we were growing up.
If you weren't mature enough to carry one, you were looked down upon. That meant you were not trust worthy or just plain bad.
And I knew that if I used the knife wrong (in a threatening way) not only would my Dad beat my back end with his belt, even worse, I would lose the trust that I had achieved to carry my knife.
I can remember in the 4th grade, we didn't have a pencil sharpener in the classroom. But Mr. Smith would allow us boys to come up beside his desk over top of the little garbage can and sharpen our knives beside of him. I can remember, he'd often pull out his knife to sharpen the girls' pencils for them. Oh how thankful I was that I didn't have to walk up to the front of the class and ask him to sharpen my pencil too. I would've just as soon have died rather than to do that.
My sophomore year in high school, Isaac asked to borrow my knife in our english class to sharpen his pencil. The teacher stepped out of the room and I handed it to him.
A few minutes later, I asked for my knife back, but he said he didn't have it. I did the unheard of, I asked a second time. Again, got the same answer.
So, I stand up, walk in front of his desk and flip it over on top of him and tell him to give me knife back. Mr. Metcalfe walked back in the class as Isaac was upside down and me holding his desk on top of him. He must've heard the last part of the conversation as he was coming back in the door because he asked Isaac if he had my knife, and Isaac answered yes.
Mr. Metcalfe said in a kind of surprised voice: "well don't you think you should give it back to him?".
He reached into his pocket and handed it up to me and I roll the desk off of him and I was expecting mr. Metcalfe to tell me to go to the office, but he just went straight to his lesson and I sat down and that was the end of that.
Things sure are different these days.
