A couple of weeks ago I went rummaging through a Rubbermaid container in the basement full of my old school books from high school and college. I didn’t keep everything, mind you, but I did hang on to a few notebooks and projects from subjects I enjoyed or that I thought might come in handy – like French. Here I am a homeschooling mom and I’ve introduced French to my sixth grader. How smart of me that I hung on to all of my work from the Honors French III class I took my senior year of high school.
So I rummaged. I found my old English-French dictionary, a folder of notes, a personal copy of The Little Prince in French and a copy of The Little Prince in English… which I apparently borrowed from the high school library in 1996 and quite clearly failed to return.
Oops. This book is 19 years overdue. I laughed at myself, took a photo of it, and posted it on Facebook so others could laugh with me. I tagged a classmate of mine who works at the school, and other classmates commented and liked the post. All in good fun.
Then, a brilliant idea was suggested – buy a new copy and “return” the book. Of course! I wish I’d thought of it myself.
I wrote this note on the inside cover:
I also wrote a note to the current librarian:
Why not, right? The Honor Code is a big deal at GPS. Since it was taught that honor was our most valued possession, the Honor Code was the thread that ran through every activity, every engagement, and absolutely every assignment. We signed our work to say that it our own work and not the work of someone else. We pledged our honor every day of every year we attended that school, so when it was suggested I purchase a replacement book, I knew there was no other way to make this right, even though not returning a library book – entirely on accident – seems like the smallest infraction of all.
So read this as my formal apology to the Girls Preparatory School. A new edition of The Little Prince is headed your way.