Friday 5: School daze

This is a very sad sign that summer is almost over. Lucky for me, summer is my busy season!

1. What is your earliest memory of school?
What came to mind was walking with my friend Ted to first grade, by the trolley tracks and carefully through the bully's neighborhood (which, incidentally, is where my sister now lives). The bully has his own plumbing business now. The school was torn down two years later and we took the bus to another school.

2. Who was a favorite teacher in your early education?
I loved almost all of my teachers. I loved Miss Lee though. Young and pretty and her sister was my middle school volleyball coach later. Also Mrs. Zachow whose pretend-example-person was always named Heliotrope. "If Heliotrope has five apples..."
I can't remember her name but my math teacher in 3rd grade had a sign up that said
"Good better Best
Never Let them Rest
Until Their Good is Better
and their Better is the Best!" Sound ominous but she was great! And by that time, my best friend's math skills had outstripped me, so I needed some encouragement. He's a math professor now.

3. What do you remember about school “back then” that is different from what you know about schools now?
I was aware that I wasn't popular but I had friends and we had fun. Is school really as "mean" as books, TV or movies suggest? Was I clueless in school? Probably.
No peanut butter rules. The no backpack thing doesn't ring with me, we carried our books
Block scheduling sounds "wack". We had 10 class periods a day (5/6 was lunch) so you could take all sorts of classes.
No recess? Come on! (ditto art, music and libraries)
But also it sounds like they teach a lot more stuff than when I was a kid. I'm not talking 3 R's specifically but computers, character, languages, and more science and history earlier than we learned it. Flash is learning a little Spanish and Hindi (his teacher is Indian-American) and he's 2. Wow.

4. Did you have to memorize in school? If so, share a poem or song you learned.
Yes we did memorize some, especially multipliation tables, the preamble, and a poem a year (most of which I do not remember). My hubby can recite the beginning of The Scarlet Letter. I have an Aesop fable in French that rattles through my brain sometimes.

5. Did you ever get in trouble at school? Were there any embarrassing moments you can share?
My bus-stop got in trouble for playing football over the road. Well, actually, the ball was caught by a guy's convertible and he reported us. And took our ball. Interesting that just saying that flared up a little "stinker" though in my brain. Got caught kissing in the stairwell but never for passing notes (go figure). But, mostly I was a good kid and friendly with everyone.