So, Who's Next?
Yesterday, I almost had to hide from someone. Literally.
I was at the supermarket next door on my lunch break, and I was nearly trampled by a herd of red shirted third graders. Who the heck takes their class on a field trip to the local grocery store? Well, as I soon saw, apparently my second grade teacher does things like this.
Dear God, don't let her see me!
Of all my years of academic nightmares, first and second grades stand out as the worst. Interestingly, Counselor is about to start me (tonight, even) on this technique she just learned that's supposed to help take the sting out of these early formative traumas. Let me just tell you, Mrs. Williams sure contributed a few! To this day, my family refers to her as Old Yeller. Twenty-one years later, I just wanted to be invisible as she walked by. Lucky me, she was fairly oblivious to her surroundings. Including the kids, probably. But she didn't see me, so I was saved from having to deal with the teacher who could have been a Poe villain.
Note to teachers and parents: If your obviously smart student has equally obvious difficulty dealing with school, the correct way of dealing with them is not to call them Speedy Gonzales and offer "rewards" in the form of still more school work. It is also inadvisable to exclude these students from class parties and field trips. Rewards, punishment, and especially mockery and screaming, are not good ways to respond to learning disabilities, k?
Wretched woman. *shudder*
So this morning, shortly after I got to the office after the monthly breakfast, my cell rang. The name on the caller id made me laugh, partly because of yesterday's brief potential teacher drama, and partly because it was just so random. The person on the other end was none other than the 6th grade teacher I talked about in October and had dinner with in November. It seems she recently came across old videos. Videos of the chapels we did my two years in her class.
She told me she stuck them in an envelope and mailed them to the school (not to be confused with The School), addressed to my mom. Sometime soon I will be reliving some of the brighter moments of my time as a student at that school. Then I'll pass it on to a classmate from that era.
In the last 48 hours, I've come across the best and worst of elementary school. These things come in threes, though, so I'm wondering who's next. Could it be the aptly named Mrs. Paine, Nightmare of First Grade? Or perhaps Detention King Math Teacher? Maybe I'll run into Quirky History Teacher who let us play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and who always told us the tests were "easy if you know the answers." If I have a choice in the matter, I'd like to vote for one of the good ones.
I was at the supermarket next door on my lunch break, and I was nearly trampled by a herd of red shirted third graders. Who the heck takes their class on a field trip to the local grocery store? Well, as I soon saw, apparently my second grade teacher does things like this.
Dear God, don't let her see me!
Of all my years of academic nightmares, first and second grades stand out as the worst. Interestingly, Counselor is about to start me (tonight, even) on this technique she just learned that's supposed to help take the sting out of these early formative traumas. Let me just tell you, Mrs. Williams sure contributed a few! To this day, my family refers to her as Old Yeller. Twenty-one years later, I just wanted to be invisible as she walked by. Lucky me, she was fairly oblivious to her surroundings. Including the kids, probably. But she didn't see me, so I was saved from having to deal with the teacher who could have been a Poe villain.
Note to teachers and parents: If your obviously smart student has equally obvious difficulty dealing with school, the correct way of dealing with them is not to call them Speedy Gonzales and offer "rewards" in the form of still more school work. It is also inadvisable to exclude these students from class parties and field trips. Rewards, punishment, and especially mockery and screaming, are not good ways to respond to learning disabilities, k?
Wretched woman. *shudder*
So this morning, shortly after I got to the office after the monthly breakfast, my cell rang. The name on the caller id made me laugh, partly because of yesterday's brief potential teacher drama, and partly because it was just so random. The person on the other end was none other than the 6th grade teacher I talked about in October and had dinner with in November. It seems she recently came across old videos. Videos of the chapels we did my two years in her class.
She told me she stuck them in an envelope and mailed them to the school (not to be confused with The School), addressed to my mom. Sometime soon I will be reliving some of the brighter moments of my time as a student at that school. Then I'll pass it on to a classmate from that era.
In the last 48 hours, I've come across the best and worst of elementary school. These things come in threes, though, so I'm wondering who's next. Could it be the aptly named Mrs. Paine, Nightmare of First Grade? Or perhaps Detention King Math Teacher? Maybe I'll run into Quirky History Teacher who let us play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and who always told us the tests were "easy if you know the answers." If I have a choice in the matter, I'd like to vote for one of the good ones.
Labels: People I Know
posted by The Other Gatekeeper at
10:56 AM
1 Comments:
My music teacher was the walking nightmare in our school--we called him "Hatchethead," and boy, was he mean. *shudder* Amazing, isn't it, how those feelings hang on. Fortunately, I had some really wonderful teachers later on!
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