When I was in the third grade at Elizaville Elementary School, the third and fourth grades shared a classroom, and Mrs. Marian Gulley alternated teaching the two grades.
One day, on a whim, Mrs. Gulley gave me a copy of the fourth grade's American history quiz. I had, of course, listened to her teaching the class, and, bored, I had read the fourth grade's history textbook, a collection of potted biographies of great Americans.
I scored a 96 on the quiz, the highest grade.
I proudly took it home, and my mother, from whom I received the gift of sarcasm, remarked, "I'm sure that made you popular with the fourth grade."
But she kept the test. Forty years later, I found it among her effects.
What a priceless gift is a parent who infects us with curiosity and a hunger for learning.
ReplyDeleteWhat a charming story! Thanks for telling us.
ReplyDeleteI only had one year (1966) when I was in a combined class. Grades IV and V at St Maria Goretti's school in Adelaide were taught by Sr Mary Raphael. She occasionally used to give me extra or different tasks to do. At least once she got me to read out the spelling words for the rest of my Grade IV group, while she taught the Grade V group, something I don't recall her asking any other Grade IV student to do.
I was good at spelling then. I recall in that year or the previous one that the teacher used to ask us to take home our spelling primer to learn the words for the next day, and all the children would carry out their primers to their bags and cases stored outside (boys had bags, girls had cases). However, I knew all the words, so, in one of my few acts of 'rebellion' at primary school, I would not take my book home and would deliberately position myself in the group as they exited the room in such a way the teacher would not see that my hand was empty. (Who knows if my deception worked.)
I can't remember how big our combined class was, except that there were only six boys in Grade V, and that there were more girls, so let's say at least 15 students in Grade V, and perhaps 20 or more in Grade IV.
Besides reading the words in a specified way, I had to supply an example sentence with the word in context. For the word 'one', the sentence I quickly created concerned a classmate known for his height: 'Michael Nolan is the tallest one.' There was some laughter from the class and I was embarrassed.
I have no idea if my giving of the spelling test had any effect on my relationship with other students.