Sam J. Ervin Jr.
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807844649
- eISBN:
- 9781469616346
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807875735_Ervin
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Originally published in 1984, this collection of stories and anecdotes winds its way from the author's native Morganton through Chapel Hill and Harvard, the military, the North Carolina Supreme ...
More
Originally published in 1984, this collection of stories and anecdotes winds its way from the author's native Morganton through Chapel Hill and Harvard, the military, the North Carolina Supreme Court, the United States Senate, and Watergate. It represents a lifetime of wit and wisdom—told in the late author's inimitable style.Less
Originally published in 1984, this collection of stories and anecdotes winds its way from the author's native Morganton through Chapel Hill and Harvard, the military, the North Carolina Supreme Court, the United States Senate, and Watergate. It represents a lifetime of wit and wisdom—told in the late author's inimitable style.
Sam J. Ervin
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807844649
- eISBN:
- 9781469616346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9780807844649.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses the school prayer cases and the time when students in the Morganton High School were required to answer the morning roll call with quotations from the Scriptures. The author ...
More
This chapter discusses the school prayer cases and the time when students in the Morganton High School were required to answer the morning roll call with quotations from the Scriptures. The author answered the roll call one morning with this quotation: “I have more understanding than all my teachers.” The quotation moved his classmates to laughter and his teacher to anger. The teacher punished the author by keeping him after school and requiring him to memorize and recite Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” When the author protested it was unfair to punish him because he had quoted the Bible correctly as he was supposed to do, his teacher said that the words he quoted were not in the Bible. After the author called her attention to Psalms 119, verses 99–100, the teacher conceded that the author had quoted the Bible correctly, but asserted that he nevertheless deserved the punishment imposed on him because he did not quote it with reverence.Less
This chapter discusses the school prayer cases and the time when students in the Morganton High School were required to answer the morning roll call with quotations from the Scriptures. The author answered the roll call one morning with this quotation: “I have more understanding than all my teachers.” The quotation moved his classmates to laughter and his teacher to anger. The teacher punished the author by keeping him after school and requiring him to memorize and recite Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” When the author protested it was unfair to punish him because he had quoted the Bible correctly as he was supposed to do, his teacher said that the words he quoted were not in the Bible. After the author called her attention to Psalms 119, verses 99–100, the teacher conceded that the author had quoted the Bible correctly, but asserted that he nevertheless deserved the punishment imposed on him because he did not quote it with reverence.
