I have three worst. The first was in kindergarten. Someone said to me, “Heidi is wearing funny shoes,” and I said, “Yes, she is.” I didn’t really think the shoes were that funny, I was just being agreeable. However, I was the one who was made to stand in the corner for saying Heidi was wearing funny shoes.
The second happened in sixth grade. One of the boys in the class had a birthday and brought gum for everyone. The teacher wasn’t that happy, as she would have preferred that he brought cupcakes, or something similar. However, she agreed to let us chew the gum. At the end of the day, I was going to my locker to get my coat, and another teacher saw me chewing gum and told me to spit it out. I told her Mrs. L. was letting us chew gum that day, but she said, “Mrs. L. never lets people chew gum,” and she made me spit it out.
The third was from eighth grade. I had a rotten teacher that year who was quite incapable of teaching. For math, we had a program that consisted of a series of booklets we were able to work on at our own pace. I finished all the required booklets and three of the four optional booklets. I was nearly finished with the fourth, but during math period he always found something else for me to do and wouldn’t let me finish that fourth booklet.
I have three best memories. The first was in first grade when my teacher discovered I could already read our reader. She realized it was pointless for to keep me in a group that was reading a book I could already read, so instead she let me advance quicker.
The second was in sixth grade when I received the “sixth grade math award.” That was the only grade that had a math award.
The third was in eighth grade. That year they instituted two “eighth grade math awards,” one for a boy and one for a girl. I got one of them. I really think the reason they made two awards is because we had a male teacher and he didn’t want it to look as if a girl was smarter than all the boys.