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susandennisI hated school and, not surprisingly, I sucked at it. I was a lazy student given more opportunities than most to achieve and succeed and still I managed to suck at it. And hated it.
I went to public school until the 9th grade. I remember being interested in diagramming sentences (and being good at it) and understanding why it was a good skill to have. It's the only thing I remember even being vaguely interested in.
For high school, my parents sent me to Salem Academy for Girls founded in 1772 and housed in the original building. It was pretty much the last of the old time finishing school for girls. They were moving, then, away from finishing but I still learned to curtsy and tactfully terminate domestic employees. I also learned calculus and the first 52 lines of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in middle English.
The tightassed snotty old white ladies who were my teachers there actually managed to squeezed some valuable shit into this unwelcoming brain. I fought it tooth and nail but they actually won. I am more than embarrassed when I think of the money and effort that my parents poured into my education and the very little I did to assist.
I remember Septembers as hot and sweaty. The school was in the historic part of Winston-Salem in a little Moravian village. We had to buy books from a little shop that was in the basement of a house like this.
And school supplies. I love school and office supplies - I have for as long as I can remember. Back then, I was totally subsidized by Mom and Dad and they thought anything more than the basic necessities of school supplies was all I needed. 1 number 2 pencil, 1 notebook, 1 fountain pen, 1 bookbag (and likely the one from last year at that). The end. It was torture.
Now some bazillion and a half years later, September is my favorite time of year. It holds both the promise of cooler weather and even better school supplies every year and no one to tell me I can't have that. It's magical and wonderful and I can still diagram a sentence. If you live long enough...
I went to public school until the 9th grade. I remember being interested in diagramming sentences (and being good at it) and understanding why it was a good skill to have. It's the only thing I remember even being vaguely interested in.
For high school, my parents sent me to Salem Academy for Girls founded in 1772 and housed in the original building. It was pretty much the last of the old time finishing school for girls. They were moving, then, away from finishing but I still learned to curtsy and tactfully terminate domestic employees. I also learned calculus and the first 52 lines of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in middle English.
The tightassed snotty old white ladies who were my teachers there actually managed to squeezed some valuable shit into this unwelcoming brain. I fought it tooth and nail but they actually won. I am more than embarrassed when I think of the money and effort that my parents poured into my education and the very little I did to assist.
I remember Septembers as hot and sweaty. The school was in the historic part of Winston-Salem in a little Moravian village. We had to buy books from a little shop that was in the basement of a house like this.
And school supplies. I love school and office supplies - I have for as long as I can remember. Back then, I was totally subsidized by Mom and Dad and they thought anything more than the basic necessities of school supplies was all I needed. 1 number 2 pencil, 1 notebook, 1 fountain pen, 1 bookbag (and likely the one from last year at that). The end. It was torture.
Now some bazillion and a half years later, September is my favorite time of year. It holds both the promise of cooler weather and even better school supplies every year and no one to tell me I can't have that. It's magical and wonderful and I can still diagram a sentence. If you live long enough...