Rummaging around the attic earlier, I came across two copies of my old elementary school newspaper, called "The Scoop"... This was in a set of scrapbooks mom had made for me when I was entering high school.
Many physical memories had to be shed as I kept moving around from 1999-2003, as if a little piece of me was deposited everywhere I went. I saved these scrapbooks, however. The first thing I noticed was how familiar all the students' names were when I read them -- far from my active memory, but logged in very clearly long-term.
The first time my name ever made print media (other than kindergarten diplomas) was in the February 14, 1980 issue of The Scoop, where I had a high ranking in the spelling bee that year. I never won a school-wide bee, but was eighth in 1980, second in 1981, and a disappointing 18th the following year.
I can't remember the word I missed in third grade (1980), but since I was runner-up in '81, I clearly remember spelling the word "probably" as "probally"... Darn my unfortunate habit of spelling things as they were pronounced! I won a soft-cover copy of "James & The Giant Peach" as a consolation.
For years after my 1981 flub, I always joked that my father would get me for missing the word I did. I wasn't unusually rebellious at that age, just typical bad kid behavior at times that had my father lecture me about my bad attitude.
Yes, that's the word I missed: attitude. And what was I thinking when I was driven home that day? Never to tell my dad what word I missed in that spelling bee.
Spelling, along with reading, were two points of my "hyperlexia", a condition far more researched and known now than back in the '80s. And beginning with the issuing of letter grades in 1980-81, I never failed to go lower than A-minus in the subject.
Until eighth grade.
Despite all the teasing I endured in fifth and seventh grades, eighth grade still ranks as my least favorite: a perfect lead-in to the high school days I dreaded. I was bringing home D-minuses in spelling for two quarters. But how?
To this day, its reasoning is blatantly unfair. The teacher, catching one student cheating on his Friday test, announced that not only did we have to spell the words, we had to write them down from memory in the EXACT order they were in the spelling book. She wouldn't even mention words: the word was wrong if it wasn't in the proper place. Good for a memorization class, but we could spell "supercalifragilistic..." correctly, yet if we put it #4 on the list instead of #7... there goes your grade. How effective was memorizing the spellings of the words, when spelling in eighth grade wasn't about that at all?
It was one of the first times I learned the hard truth about one bad apple spoiling things for the entire bunch. Even today in this crazy world, that rings true. But as they say, a lesson learned is a lesson gained.
