Bright and early this morning, 9:15, we attended Blaine's 1st Grade Award Ceremony. He got an award for reading 25 books. He was one book shy of reading 50. He is an excellent reader and interested in subjects that you normally don't associate with a 6 year old. Right now he is into geography, specifically Russia and China. He has maps on his wall and his other grandma bought him a globe. Whenever he hears of a place on the news he looks it up.
Memories: I wasn't a very good student, but I tried so hard to please everyone especially the teacher. We didn't have a kindergarten program when I was going to school so I started 1st grade when I was 5 years old and I was a shy little girl. Being shy was no attribute; you can get lost in the shuffle. That was tongue in cheek because you really can't get lost in a shuffle of 20-30 kids in 8 grades.
When I was in the 5th grade, the year the 5th graders transitioned into the "big" room, I was a nervous nelly. It made me literally sick to go to school. I was so unhappy. I remember a particular time, our teacher gave us each a little topic about 2 paragraphs long. We were to tell in our own words what the topic was about. To this day I remember it was geography. I recited word for word from the book rather than telling about it in my own words. I also remember the teacher talking to my mom about this very thing. Since I was scared to death to go to school and having a difficult time, my mom took me to our pediatrician to see if he could help. After I married, I found out that the doctor prescribed a mild tranquilizer. I remember only taking them a short time. They must have worked because I got much better.
Our little school, Garden Grove, had an evening awards ceremony and 8th grade graduation at the end of every year. I remember our teacher gave us a stern warning we had to set up straight in our chairs for the ceremony. She would call our names and we walked up the steps of the stage to get our awards. Now these awards weren't just a piece of paper, they were beautiful!!! They were velvet in all the primary colors with a ribbon on the inside of the folder along with the certificate of your award. That year I got a huge surprise. See, I was in a class of 4. My extremely smart cousin and another cute little boy made straight As and I couldn't compete with them. The teacher gave those two their awards, of course, and then surprise, she called my name as the student who tried the hardest of all the students all year long. I was getting special recognition. Oh, that was great! Now remember we had to set up straight - BUT I was terribly sick and not from nerves this time. I had a stomach flu. I was having a hard time setting up, but I knew I had to because.........I didn't know what that teacher might do to me. I was so sick that as soon as the ceremony was over, I went straight to the car and laid down. My parents took forever to come to the car. This was a community event and since everyone knew one another, they would visit forEVer! I couldn't bask in the recognition this special teacher gave me. But to this day, I still remember and she remains my favorite teacher.
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