"practicum"

2nd grade was the last year I spent in public school.

Everything was great -- for a while. I got my papers signed, chatted with a parent volunteer, put together reading folders, ate school lunch. I practiced spelling words with the cutest snaggle-toothed/silver-toothed/big glasses/mullet kid ever. Nobody wanted to be his partner. "Hey, I'm Wayne. I'm new here." "Really? Me too!" I was having such a good time until somebody was kindly reminded not to touch the water fountain when we lined up to go to lunch. FLASHBACK "No Mrs. Substitute, I didn't drink from the water fountain. I almost did, but then I remembered you said not to." "I'm sorry, Rebecca, but your classmate said he saw you take a drink." *pitiful, innocent, pleading look* That was Kindergarten, and I still get panicky when I think about it. This directly resulted in a lifelong fear of breaking rules. I really didn't drink, I really didn't.

On the way back to the classroom, the teacher explained "AR" to me. Believe me, I know about AR. Until then, I hadn't noticed the testing table in the corner. Yeah, there it was, the Accelerated Reading computer. FLASHBACK "Man, I really have to pee! If I ask now, I'll get in trouble for not going earlier when I had the chance, and I won't get to finish this test about Chicken Little. I can hold it, I can hold it, almost done... oh no. oh no. That's bad, really bad. umm, maybe nobody will notice?" Needless to say, someone noticed -- not the puddle, but my sagging shorts and guilty face. Eight is too old to wet your pants.

I'm really no good at math. What does 'How many more' mean? It means... subtract. I think. OH man, please don't call me up to the board. Yeah, she did. Not me, but that little girl, the only black girl in the room. Wait, you were supposed to write a take-away sign, not a plus! Man, this is so embarrassing. She's putting her hands over her face so nobody can see. The walk of shame, back to the board to fix her mistake... I didn't have a flashback this time because I've blocked out all memories of math lessons. Maybe that's why I had to be an English major instead.

The good news is that our spelling test went great. I'm a great speller!