Tuesday, August 24, 2010

How I Passed Spelling in the Seventh Grade

I had always been a good speller, making perfect on spelling tests and getting certificates from the state three years in  a row. Therefore, my parents were shocked when I came home with F's  in spelling in the seventh grade.  They demanded an explanation and I gave it to them.  We had to write with pen staffs, a problem in itself.  To be correct a word had to be spelled correctly and free of any writing errors such as an  e being too tall or an l too short, a loop in a t, or too narrow a loop in an l.  The girl who sat behind me graded my paper and took delight in finding a flaw in every word and marking nearly all wrong, thus giving me a failing grade.  I was helpless to contend with this.  My dad came to my rescue.  I had no money to buy the girl a candy bar and thus influence her,  but we had pears, pecans and peanuts in abundance, so I showered her with them. It worked; she started being reasonable and I passed spelling. I don't remember my grade, but for the first time I wasn't perfect in spelling. The teacher, Oren Trout, not only had students grading papers but let the class vote the  conduct grade for each student.  You can bet no boy got better than C. We also gave some of the mos popular girls C but he raised their grade to a B.

No comments:

Post a Comment