Jul. 19, 2007 - 20:42 MDT

EDUCATIONAL FALLACY

Seems that an ailment called Chorea, commonly known as St. Vitus Dance descended on me about in the fourth grade of elementary school. I don't remember too much about the onset, other than my body was doing an accelerated Herky Jerky all the time. I remember struggling to keep up with class, and for the most part succeeding.

My folks took me to our doctor, whereupon he diagnosed said ailment. Prescribed potions and powders, diets and such as well. And recommended that I be taken out of school. Which I was, that coming Monday.

For the biggest part of a year Mom and Dad would drop me off at the street car line near where they worked and I would ride the trolley out to my cousin's house and spend the day there. I was kept close to home there, cared for in aunty's gruff way, but cared for.

The big window seat that had storage under the seat helped me pass the time, puzzles galore and games to play when my cousins got home from school. And I always had a book with me to read on the trolley and read there when puzzles palled, now and then.

The summer wasn't bad as I was allowed to go around the neighborhood with my boy cousin and as well my girl cousin near our age was part of the trio. He and I'd get in trouble and she would fib us out of it if possible.

I mourned it when I couldn't go back to school in the fall when my cousins started back.

Looking back, I think the doctor emphasized that I was not to be put under stress of any kind, and I wasn't.

So a year away from school and I was deemed well. Mom stayed home from work to take me back that time, and between the Principal and Mom it was decided that I was a "brilliant" child and should be kept with my classmates, deeming that I could easily catch up with them.

In many ways it turned out that way. But the drag anchor on my school life from there on were two lines of study that drove me bananas. English and Math.

I had missed much too much of the mechanics and systems of math and English grammar. I had perfect English usage compared to other kids, but to this day I have no idea of what a participle is and where to dangle it, and if my life depended on it, still can not parse a sentence. Math had too much rote memorization and exercising that the kids went through while I was out.

So from then on, I struggled mightily, just barely getting by and plodding from grade to grade.

As our kids came around, I made Heather promise me that we would never allow one of our kids to be skipped a grade no matter what the school administrators thought. The situation never became a reality as our kids made their way through school without a health-hitch. But I was weary of "skipping a grade" from years ago and very wary of that EDUCATIONAL FALLACY . . . . . . . . . . . .

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