My mom is right. You can't go back to your childhood places. Even an old school you went to for eight years. I want to go to Highland this afternoon -- but there are so many rules and regulations that say - not in so many words - No, once you've left you cannot come back. I feel like crying and getting mad at everyone - but I will just write my feelings in here.
11:30
I was angry earlier this morning when Lori told me that her mother said we might get kicked out of the grade school. Her mother is always butting into things like that. She was all upset over the fact that I wanted to see my 3rd grade teacher - Miss Meyer. She (Lori's mom) doesn't like Miss Meyer. I really don't know many people who do. I learned more from her than any other teacher since. Things not from books - but the fact that I am as good as anyone else and if I have a question ask it. (in school).
I told Lori something that I have only told Cindy. I am more ashamed of this than anything else that has ever happened. The fact that I had to take third grade over.
That's why I make it such a point to do better in school in the grade.
{You appear to have a very mature attitude about life, Dona. It is natural for all of us to have many questions - and fewer answers; we humans seem to have an eternal quest for knowledge. Everyday adds something to our constant growth process.}
Note:
Barbara Meyer, was my third grade teacher both years. She was considered the meanest teacher in the school and most parents were as afraid of her as their children were. Looking back, I remember her looking a lot like the "We Can Do It" woman on the WW II propaganda posters. She had a loud voice and was heard to swear on occasion.
Near the end of my first third grade year, Patty K., a classmate down the block, told me that she heard Miss Meyer tell someone I was going to flunk third grade. I ran home crying and my mom told Miss Meyer what Patty told me. Patty (sidenote - she was the aunt of my nephew's longtime girlfriend and neice's roommate in college) got in trouble for telling something she overheard (she was helping Miss Meyer erase the boards or something). What on Earth did Miss Meyer expect? That was quite a scoop for an 8 year old to keep to herself. My mom denied it, but not long afterwards told me it was true.
I was sitting on a tricycle backwards with a pillow behind my back and scooting around the living room. My mom said she had something to tell me and told me that the teacher and principal thought it would be best if I didn't go on to 4th grade next year. Of course I was upset and embarrassed. I was mostly concerned with the first day of school in the fall where normally we all went back to our previous year's classrooms and the current year teachers would come in one by one and read the names of the students in his or her class. I wondered if I would be the last person sitting in that class and everyone would know.
What the teachers did was have me go somewhere else and help out, but return to the class when all sorting was over. I guess it helped me not be so aware of not being promoted, but everyone figured it out at some point, I am sure.
In the long run it was the best thing that could have happened. Had I not repeated that year I may very well have dropped out of school or done so poorly that I would not have considered college. Miss Meyer did me a favor. I requested to be in her class the next year and I think I was a favored student that year. She was surprised because she knew her reputation.
I did get to visit with her later, and when I was in college did a brief internship at the school. I got to hang out in the teacher's lounge and did talk with her some. I wrote her a letter about 15 years ago, but it was before word processing and personal computers were common. I typed it on an electric typewriter, allowed another teacher to look at it and since she found so many errors I threw it away.
No comments:
Post a Comment