Sleeping

When I was in 3rd grade I was sent to a magnet school. I went to public school for a while and they tried to have me skip a grade. My parents felt that skipping a grade may have some negative social effects on me, so they sent me to a magnet school instead. A magnet school basically gives the student more options in the way of learning.

My teacher was Ms. Wade. I loved her. She was very nice, really pretty and always praised you just enough to make you try that much harder. I owe my love of reading and all things grammar-related to Ms. Wade.

For one winter week during 3rd grade, Ms. Wade was sick, so we had a substitute. This sub was apparently not very happy with her life, and took it out on her students. I vividly remember one day when she told us all to write down our very favorite thing to do alone. Then we went around the room and everybody shared their favorite alone-time activity.

There were things like reading, drawing, playing with Barbies and playing with Legos. When it was my turn I said “sleeping”.

Ms. Grumpy Sub said, “Well that doesn’t really count, everybody sleeps.” To which I replied, “But it’s my favorite thing to do alone.” She made me cross it out and write something else.

So she called on 3 other people to share their favorite things. Then she came back to me. I held up my piece of paper which read “SLEEPING”.

She gave me a stern look and said, “Did I not tell you that sleeping does not count? Everybody sleeps. You have to pick something different.”

Again, she went to 3 other people. Then she came back to me. I proudly held up my piece of paper showing the word sleeping written twice, crossed out each time, and then a brand new version of the word “sleeping” underneath.

She then said to me, “If you don’t become a lawyer I’m going to kill myself.”

The following week, when Ms. Wade came back, I hugged her the minute she walked in the door.

4 comments:

Christine said...

You were a stubborn little thing, weren't you? That's awesome.

The Unprocessed Project said...

I love when people have stories about their favorite teachers. I want to be that teacher!

I just hope I'm not Ms. Grumpy Sub ever!

:) said...

well..dont call her up with the latest update...otherwise thats probably some form of murder

Orchid Lover said...

Hahaha that was a great story! Good for you :)