Jaroslava Kravčenková roz. Pernicová

“I was scared of math, math was simply terrifying for me. And this is what happened: it was very hot, forty degrees Centigrade in shade, and I took my textbooks and I went to the church of St. Catherine, because I knew that nobody would bother me there. I opened the books and suddenly I heard: ‘Well, I have never seen prayer books like this here.’ I turned around and a Catholic priest was standing there. I said: ‘It’s great that you are here, please tell me, do you understand this?’ And he said: ‘I do, you know. Come with me to the sacristy.’ And just imagine, I have passed the exams with what he explained to me. It was a curious thing. He explained it to me in such a way that I excelled. I finished the exam and I said: ‘Principal, please, do not think that I am so smart. A Catholic priest has just explained it to me. Please don’t think that I tried to cheat, I wouldn’t be even able to think of something like that.’ And he asked: ‘Why did you tell us this?’ Well, that’s how I am.”

“Little Hanička came to me and said: ‘Comrade Jarunka, somebody has filched my money.’ All right, have a look once again, she was looking for it and she did not find it. I said: ‘My dear pupils, you know what? I am a teacher, I am no policeman, and so I will now place the class book on the table and we will all go out of the classroom and the person who has the one hundred crown banknote will place it inside the class book.’ To put it short, when I then opened the class book, the hundred crown banknote was inside. I thanked them and I said: ‘I will be now correcting your Czech language exercise books and I will be at school until three o’clock. If somebody would like to explain something to me, come to see me.’ At five minutes to three it happened. Maruška, imagine that a woman was living with some man, and nobody knew that the man was a drunkard and a thug and a choleric and that he spent all the money on alcohol and the kids had not eaten already for three days. And he [the boy who stole the money] did not mean to steal, but he did it for his siblings. Even now I have never mentioned his name and nobody has learnt anything. I told him: ‘Don’t be afraid, I won’t tell it to anyone. Just you coming to tell me is something so amazing.’ But I did cause such a stir in that family that the man has been meek as a lamb ever since.”