School Days--Memories

SCHOOL DAYS—Memories

“School days, school days, dear old golden rule days.
Readin’ and writin’ and ‘rithmetic
Taught to the tune of a hick’ry stick.”

Of the three subjects mentioned, arithmetic was my least favorite subject and reading was the choice. Writing became important as the years passed, and from the earliest school days there were spelling lessons.

I have always been interested in words and their spelling and punctuation. I entered first grade at age five (no kindergarten in our small town), already able to read. My three older sisters were all born teachers and I learned to read early. I thought I was smart when I started to school. Evidently the teacher did also as I was promoted to second grade for about two days. This didn’t last and I was delighted to be moved back across the hall to the first grade room. I don’t remember details but I suppose that I met up with problems in trying to do second grade work. In any case, something terrible happened in that room. Second and third grades were in the same room and at times were separated by a curtain. When the curtain was drawn I found that at the next desk was this awful thing—a third grader, a BOY! I was glad to be removed from that situation.

Getting a grade of l00 on a spelling test was a must. I have a sad memory of shedding tears when a paper came back with a red check by the word “hear.” It had been spelled “here” in the original list and evidently I didn’t pay attention to that.

I was smart in later grades—a “smart aleck,” that is. We had a seventh grade teacher whose strong points did not extend to spelling and literature. I took it upon myself to correct the pronunciation of reconnoiter when she pronounced it “re-con-i-tier.” She also read aloud a chapter of a book at the start of each afternoon session. A sentence in the book, “Little Women,” told that one of the girls had drunk some champagne. This came out as “campaign” in the reading. I believe I was silent that time.

I won the local spelling contest when in 8th grade and entered the county “spelling bee.” I thought I was smart then, also, but I was brought down to defeat because “extension” does not have two t’s.

When in high school I was asked to read the words at a spelling contest in the seventh grade. I read the word “specifically” but the teacher corrected my pronunciation, saying, “We pronounce that word 'specificially'.” Having learned a bit about manners by then, I took the polite way and pronounced the word with “cia” in it. I fervently hoped that no contest entrant would encounter that word.

Spelling is still important to me. A misspelled word stands out like a red flag and I am happy to pounce on it. My computer underlines in red any words with wrong spelling, but it doesn’t correct them. But help is near. I was fortunate in finding software for the RH dictionary. I consult it frequently and sometimes think of the school days many years ago when missing a word on a spelling test was so shameful.

Story ID:	1520
Written by:	Wanda Molsberry Bates (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Manhattan KS USA
Year:	2007