Saturday, June 21, 2008

Third Grade

This was my second grade teacher, but I remember how different my third grade teacher performed. She never used the razor strap. There was misbehavior, but she corrected us and talked to us again and again about wanting to learn. She was able to talk the milltown boys into trying to control their misbehavior and work on learning tasks. She praised them so much for working hard. I believe they liked her so much that they lost interest in giving her a hard time. My second grade teacher taught me many things but she could not improve my writing. I remember her comment: "it looks like hen scratching". My writing continued to be poor until my fourth grade teacher taught me how to print and that was the end of my writing problem. She praised my reading. My eyes were better than my hands. I remember quite easily the facts she taught us. Despite my poor handwriting she seemed to take a liking to me. She learned from our classroom songs that I had a clear, tuneful voice. We had an operetta each year and she gave me a solo part. I was the wicked rabbit who stole the golden whistle. In another one I was the singing cardinal. As I look back this was a major contribution to my positive self esteem. Despite my writing grade of D, I had a good report card in the other subjects.
I remember our playground experiences. We had a midmorning recess of short duration but a long one for lunch. We played some games like kickball, relay races, and broad jumping. I was good in anything that required running. We had one slide board and about a dozen swings. You would have to stand in line but usually everything went fast. This was friendship time as we grouped together with those in our neighborhood. I remember that we made several new friends who lived on another street within walking distance. There was a big yard where we played touch football. Because of my running skill I enjoyed this game. In the back yard of one of these friends was a marble area. There were four holes. You would get one shot for the hole. If anyone hit your marble you would have to start all over. The winner finished all the holes first. Another marble game you played for keeps. You put your marbles in the center of a big circle. You would get one shot each turn. If you were able to knock one out of the circle you kept it and continued to get more.