I was given detention at 8 years old for blasphemy because I refused to draw a picture of Jesus.
This requires a bit more of an explanation for people who don’t understand, as I actually considered it kind of blasphemous (and still do) to actually draw the picture in the first place.
The situation started out simply enough:
Our art (not religion) class was given an assignment. We were learning the color wheel and how to blend colors to create the types of shading needed to do some sort of basic portraiture. We were 8, we weren’t creating brilliance, more like moving one step up from coloring books.
Someone said “I don’t know what to draw.” The teacher wanted to give us some direction, and she said “When you are lacking inspiration, you can always draw Him.” And this evolved into a homework assignment of “draw a picture of Jesus.”
Now, to me, this wasn’t easy.
For one thing – I’ve never met the guy. I had no idea what he looks like. My dad I could do. Mickey Mouse, sure. Jesus? Plus, he’s been dead for 2000 years, and then he was ascended into a light being thing. Every drawing I’d seen had him depicted in some entirely different way.
And don’t get me started on the ghost.
Remember, I was 8.
I had absolutely no idea what to put on that paper.
I was a straight A student. I had never gotten so much as a red-pencil or a mark off in anything in my young life thus far.
I spent the entire night agonizing over this.
I asked my dad what to do, and he said something to the effect of:
“It’s blasphemy to create images of God.”
And that was it. I had my answer. I would hand in a blank piece of paper.
Needless to say, it didn’t go over very well.
The teacher gave me detention. She said I couldn’t leave until I completed the assignment. I had to draw Jesus.
I argued with her. I gave her my impassioned plea and debated the very validity of the assignment.
She sent me to the principal – a nun.
The principal listened to the whole thing and sighed.
She said, “Heather, you have to give me something. I don’t care what it is. Draw anything and explain your reasoning.”
I thought about it for a few minutes, then picked up my crayons and drew a picture of the earth.
I said:
“Jesus died 2000 years ago and his body became part of the earth. It has become part of every living thing since, and now he is in every one of us.”
( I know, I know, that’s not what “He’s in every one of us” means. That’s what 8 year old me thought it did.)
She looked at me for a second.
She blinked.
She started laughing. One of those big belly laughs.
She wrote A+ on it and told me to go home.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-stupidest-reason-for-which-you-were-punished-in-school
Originally Posted On: 2016-02-27