There's been something on my mind for the past little while that I've wanted to blog about. I think the best way to introduce it is to start at the beginning.
When I was 7, I went straight from 1st grade to 3rd grade with only a summer in between. I skipped 2nd grade entirely.
It wasn't really that uncommon in our district, come to think of it. I remember off the top of my head that Jessame, Dani, Leslie, Brooke, Mandy, Becca, and Ishmaal also skipped a grade. Possibly other kids as well. My mom and at least one of her siblings did, too. When there's no gifted and talented program, and not even Accelerated Reader at your school, that's kind of what you have to do to keep the smart kids from getting bored out of their minds.
I think the possibility of me skipping a grade had been open for a while. I was an early reader and loved to learn about pretty much everything. But I feel like what had cemented it was what I brought for show and tell one day in 1st grade. Leslie and I had made up a joke a few days before. Since red plus yellow made orange, orange minus yellow made red. Therefore, yellow minus orange made, wait for it, negative red.
And it was the funniest joke ever to two little girls! "What's yellow minus orange? Negative red! Bahahaha." We told that joke back and forth all day. I decided to use one of the coveted pieces of poster board in the house to even diagram it. I made a chart with all the primary colors and described their addition and subtraction properties. I brought that poster in for show and tell and explained to the class what all the colors meant. "And right here, see, yellow minus orange equals negative red," I told them, trying not to laugh.
Blank stares. My smile faltered.
Shortly thereafter, it was time for parent teacher conferences. I seem to remember that they cut to the chase pretty quickly.
"We think Kyra should skip a grade."
The discussion veered that direction, talking about social aspects of it and would I fit in and should I start transitioning sooner to be with that class. Then they asked, "Well, what would you like to learn about?"
What would I like to learn? Goodness, what was left to learn? I knew how to read well. I knew how to add and subtract and tell time. I even knew what photosynthesis was because my teacher had taught it to us one day. Didn't I basically know everything about everything?
Then I realized I didn't. There was something I dealt with daily and didn't understand.
"Zippers."
"Zippers," they repeated. Yup. Zippers. After looking at me quizzically for a minute, they continued their big long conversation about the whole thing. I was already fairly young for my grade (spring birthday), I was the second smallest in my class (thank you Channing for being shorter), etc, etc, etc. I didn't really pay attention.
"Um, I thought of something else I want to learn about," I announced. "Fans."
"Oh, okay," they told me. And then I think the conference was over.
You know, I never did learn about zippers or fans in school. I had to look them up on Wikipedia.
When I was 7, I went straight from 1st grade to 3rd grade with only a summer in between. I skipped 2nd grade entirely.
It wasn't really that uncommon in our district, come to think of it. I remember off the top of my head that Jessame, Dani, Leslie, Brooke, Mandy, Becca, and Ishmaal also skipped a grade. Possibly other kids as well. My mom and at least one of her siblings did, too. When there's no gifted and talented program, and not even Accelerated Reader at your school, that's kind of what you have to do to keep the smart kids from getting bored out of their minds.
I think the possibility of me skipping a grade had been open for a while. I was an early reader and loved to learn about pretty much everything. But I feel like what had cemented it was what I brought for show and tell one day in 1st grade. Leslie and I had made up a joke a few days before. Since red plus yellow made orange, orange minus yellow made red. Therefore, yellow minus orange made, wait for it, negative red.
And it was the funniest joke ever to two little girls! "What's yellow minus orange? Negative red! Bahahaha." We told that joke back and forth all day. I decided to use one of the coveted pieces of poster board in the house to even diagram it. I made a chart with all the primary colors and described their addition and subtraction properties. I brought that poster in for show and tell and explained to the class what all the colors meant. "And right here, see, yellow minus orange equals negative red," I told them, trying not to laugh.
Blank stares. My smile faltered.
Shortly thereafter, it was time for parent teacher conferences. I seem to remember that they cut to the chase pretty quickly.
"We think Kyra should skip a grade."
The discussion veered that direction, talking about social aspects of it and would I fit in and should I start transitioning sooner to be with that class. Then they asked, "Well, what would you like to learn about?"
What would I like to learn? Goodness, what was left to learn? I knew how to read well. I knew how to add and subtract and tell time. I even knew what photosynthesis was because my teacher had taught it to us one day. Didn't I basically know everything about everything?
Then I realized I didn't. There was something I dealt with daily and didn't understand.
"Zippers."
"Zippers," they repeated. Yup. Zippers. After looking at me quizzically for a minute, they continued their big long conversation about the whole thing. I was already fairly young for my grade (spring birthday), I was the second smallest in my class (thank you Channing for being shorter), etc, etc, etc. I didn't really pay attention.
"Um, I thought of something else I want to learn about," I announced. "Fans."
"Oh, okay," they told me. And then I think the conference was over.
You know, I never did learn about zippers or fans in school. I had to look them up on Wikipedia.
You must have had to wait until you were in 6th grade to learn about zippers and fans. Wikipedia didn't start until then. ;-)
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
This is awesome! Lexie & Joseph appreciated your joke. And then Joseph ran off to get his coat saying, "I can teach you about zippers. I think I understand that." But he says he doesn't necessarily understand fans. We'll have to learn about that, too. You were such a fun kid.
ReplyDelete