The year was 1974. I can still remember Miss Helen, my sixth grade teacher, telling us, “Children, open your copybooks and draw two margins on both sides of the page.” We, eight-nine-year-olds, would do as told. “Now, write down, if I have five apples and I eat . . .” she would continue. When she would have finished dictating the math problem, she would instruct us, “All rough work should be done in the space outside the right-hand-margin.” Miss Helen would never accept any rough, untidy work within the margins. That was the “sacred” space for the proper, tidy work! Since we were still in primary school, she taught us all the subjects. So, then, we would have her reiterate the same directions during drawing classes, “Do not colour outside the lines!” And, as the obedient scared little boy that I was, that’s what I did. And, for the rest of my life, I never strayed outside the lines, outside the margins.
Bro Carmel Duca MC
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