(On the story:
Time: 12 at noon,
Place: Class room of the 9th grade,
Characters: a teacher and students,
Event: the pin which hold the door handle.)
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The Pin [1] [3]
Heinrich Spoerl [2]
Translated by xia23
A door handle consists of two parts, one positive and one negative. They fit into each other, a pin which is small but important, holds them together. Without the pin the whole shebang falls apart.
The door handle at the 9th grade’s door has also been constructed with this proven principle.
When the English teacher came to the class at 12 with his customary concentrated energy, the door closed behind him, the negative part of the handle remained in his hand. The positive part flew outside clattering on the corridor.
With the negative part one can’t open the door. The door has only a square hole. The negative part does too.
The class once had held its breath and now brought out tremendous joy. The class knows what comes. Roman numeral one: an extensive investigation, which a guilt-laden student had pulled out the pin. And Roman numeral two: a technic experiment, how one can open the door without the handle. For that one hour has passed.
But nothing happened. Neither Roman numeral one nor Roman numeral two. Professor was a very experienced educationist, got himself involved all things with his 9th grade in his criminal investigation and technic problems. He knew, what one expected and one did the opposite.
“We will eventually get out”, he thought indifferently. “Mathiesen, let’s begin. Chapter 17. Second paragraph.”
Mathiesen began, got a three minus. Then it went further; one hour ran like every other hour. The part with the pin was “blown”.
But the boys were still smarter. At least one of them. All of sudden a slim tall Klostermann stood up and said he must be out.
“All of us will go afterwards”.
But he must anyway.
“You sit down!”
The slim tall Klostermann is still standing there; he maintains that he has eaten plum cakes etc.
Professor Heimbach stands in front of a problem. One can’t disprove the plum cakes. Who wants to take the consequence himself?
The professor gives in. He pokes around with his house keys in the square hole on the door. But none of them could be jammed in.
“Hand in your key.” Remarkably no one has a key. They grope busily in their pants pockets and grin.
The plum cake man also grins incautiously. Professor Heimbach is a keen observer of human nature. Those who have eaten plum cakes etc. don’t grin.
“Klosterman, I can’t help you. You sit down calmly. You can send the bill to those who has the pin on his conscience. – Kebben, stop grinning and continue.”
So it remains nothing at all.
Slowly, much too slowly, it becomes one o’clock. The bell rings. The school pours its inmates to the street. The 9th grade is not released. They stay in the dead end of long corridor on the third floor.
Professor Heimbach ends his instruction and stays on the lecture platform. The youngsters pack their books. “When could we go?” – “I don’t know. We have to just wait.
Waiting is nothing for youngsters. Besides they are hungry. The fat Schrader still has a butter bread and chews with full cheeks; the others chew the ends of their pencils.
“Can we possibly not do our home works?”
“No! Firstly, home works are, as the name says, to do at home. And secondly, you have 5 hours behind you and you must spare your delicate health, rest quietly; for all I care is your sleep.
People have enough practiced sleep on the benches. It is wonderful. But it is all right only if it is forbidden. Now, where it is recommended, it makes no fun and is not functional.
A dull boredom creeps through the room. The youngsters doze. The professor has it better: he corrects exercise books.
Shortly after 2 o’clock the cleaning women came, the 9th graders can go home, and the slim tall Klostermann, who had made it with the pin and was very proud of punishment administered by the class.
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[1]. Der Stift, Heinrich Spoerl, p. 127. Der weg zum lessen. 3rd Ed. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth，Philadelphia....Tokyo, 1986.
[2]. Heinrich Spoerl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Spoerl
[3]. The handle is probaly like this (from p. 49. Duden, DasBildwoeteerbuch):
