May 17
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 4:32PM Happiest times of life are those of youth, but we didn’t know it. Everybody told us so, but we didn’t believe it; but now it is plain.
—John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary, 1881
Dear Dixie,
Giving them a free look-see of the spring semester exam—blank, no answers—was a real tension easer. The moment I plopped the real thing on their desks this morning and said Enjoy! they went right to scratching out the answers as fast as humanly possible and some unusual suspects were the first to turn it in for some good grades.
I asked Huckleberry how he would think I’d look upon a student who pays attention and recognizes certain opportunities, like having the actual exam ahead of time and being able to fill it out with researched and correct answers so he’d make a great grade on the actual final exam?
Huckleberry didn’t say anything for a few long moments.
I said the word I’m looking for starts with an f.
Huckleberry says, from his own larynx … Freakishly?
Favorably … is the word I’m looking for. Your beloved teacher, I said, would look upon that favorably.
Huckleberry looked unmoved, so I changed the subject to a subject that evokes happiness in eighth graders. I asked Huckleberry what he was doing this summer.
He said his mother was going to kick his ass around the house. Huckleberry said his mother said he was going to have to make his own food and wash his own clothes and mow the grass.
I tried not to show my shock that Huckleberry actually spoke some words out loud in class. Finally. After almost ten months. I gave Huckleberry a teacherly look and asked, What’s wrong with that?
Huckleberry actually said something else in class, but it was unrepeatable.
Next Entry ... May 19: A Look See. Maybe Not For Me