Elementary Skills Are Elemental

Tie o’ the Day #1 is a mostly sky blue Stacy Adams, with iridescent plaid and paisles. Tie and I decided it was high time (pun intended) for it to learn the skill of telling time. As you can probably guess from this photo, Tie is near-sighted and, therefore, has to be up close to the wall clock in order to accomplish this educational feat.

If I remember accurately, I already knew how to tell time before I began my Delta Elementary student career. My student-hood began ignominiously. For one thing, I was a thumb-sucker and had not yet completely given up the habit. As a result, I accidentally on-purpose dropped my pencil under my desk quite often throughout the day, so I could grab a quick thumb-toke.

And then, for another example, there was Mrs. Harder, my 1st Grade teacher. She told Mom that she thought I was “retarded.” That was bigly fun for me to hear. Fortunately, Mom wasn’t retarded, so she knew that assessment of my mental abilities was not correct.

When Mom asked me to explain why Mrs. Harder might think I was less than capable, she was able to discern that I was pretty much mute (not moot) and skittish in Mrs. Harder’s classroom. You see, Mrs. Harder did not seem to have “an inside voice.” In fact, she didn’t “speak” at all. She hollered her words. Mom figured out that said loud voice frightened me to the point of complete silence, since I had never before in my life heard adults yell. 😱 Those extra decibels probably account for my need to take thumb breaks while I sat at my 1st Grade desk.

And you’ll be glad to know that I easily dropped that specific habit/need, when I went to 2nd Grade. Becuz Mrs. June B. Reid had an inside voice. 🙃

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