Average Jane Is Still Mad at Her Third Grade Teacher

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Yesterday a stray memory surfaced, I tweeted about it, and then I discovered that I'm not the only person who is still burned up about something that happened to them in elementary school.

Here's what I remember from that long-ago incident:

We were taking a spelling test where the teacher read each word aloud and we had to write it down. I can't remember whether she used the words in a sentence or not, but we reached a word that she repeatedly pronounced "rule." As it turned out, the word was "rural" and I was extremely indignant that I'd missed it on the test because of her pronunciation. Apparently we were supposed to have reviewed the list of words in advance, so she thought I should have known "rural" was on the test. I'm sure I never reviewed the list because I was a good speller even then, but to this day I refuse to take the blame for missing the word on the test.

So I told Twitter about it and inadvertently tapped into a groundswell of suppressed childhood anger.

No pressure, teachers, but it turns out you may be more memorable for your students than you thought–and not in a good way.

If you've ever heard a kid exclaim, "It's not FAIR!" you can easily see why things like this stick with people. In elementary school, we're all starting to experience little glimpses of just how unfair life can be. The more surprised we were, the more we probably hold on to the memories.

And then there's this:

Ah, memory. What a bizarre storage device we all have to work with.

Comments

8 responses to “Average Jane Is Still Mad at Her Third Grade Teacher”

November 6, 2010

Teri and the cats of Furrydance

I think we ‘prolly’ all have similar grrrrr memories–mine was an art teacher who pretended to be French, who told me I couldn’t draw—stuck with me and I never ventured into drawing…

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November 6, 2010

Suebob

Oh my gosh, Teri, I was at an art opening last night and was talking to people about how ONE LITTLE COMMENT from a teacher can change the path of your life for good or for ill.

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November 6, 2010

Laurie

almost all my stories come from the same third grade teacher! what was it about 3rd grade?

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November 6, 2010

cagey

Celeste – I lost an entire spelling bee due to the fact that I thought “horizon” was pronounced similar to “horizontal” I was in 3rd grade and was devastated at the time. My mom still brings it up and laughs about it – to her, it is a cute childhood story. To me, I lost the entire frocking spelling bee because of it and came in 2nd place instead. Sheesh.

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November 6, 2010

Average Jane

Cagey – I remember my mom talking about losing a spelling bee because she got confused about how to spell “piano.” Decades later, she still remembered the incident (and never spelled the word wrong again).

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November 6, 2010

Barb Holter

I had a very evil 4th grade teacher who had a thick Ozark accent. We had just moved from Chicago and not only did everyone think I had an accent, but I could not understand a word she said. One day she told us she had been sick with a “varse”. I told my folks and they were overcome with laughter. To this day we pronounce “virus” as “varse”. By the way, I was always gracious when a student pointed out any error I made. In fact I encouraged proofing and googling to check things. The only mistake I remember was misspelling “lightning” as “lightening”.(the thing that accompanies thunder) The kid who caught it was so proud of himself. Maybe a little too proud.

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November 6, 2010

Doug

Once my mother asked me to spell “won’t.” We lived in Georgia at the time. Confused, I asked, “Do you mean you won’t do something, or that you wont to go somewhere?”

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November 8, 2010

Huts Erickson

Sorry to tag a long, but… When I took a week of school to see my grandparents in Houston I asked my teacher in advance for all my homework. I came back to find out I had 85 pages to complete! I was so upset I called her a bitch in front of my parents (not my teacher). They didn’t freak about that cuss word that one time. What the kids told me before I entered 4th grade was true, Mrs. Altweis was a bitch!

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