Nothing encourages a Young Mind more than having Authority Figures tell you you're not good at something... What was this Teacher being so critical about anyway ? There is a beginning, a middle, and an end to this story. Plus, it engages the imagination of the Reader with questions like: Who is Min ? Who is Fin ? WHY did they meet on the rim of the can ? I was in 1st Grade for goodness sake ! I think the reason WHY I ended up being a Writer was, this Teacher was very NICE and encouraging in all the write ways (typo intended). She challenged me without scaring me away from the material. As for Min & Fin, I kinda like these guys... Can you say: SEQUEL ?!
Hi Jamie!! LOL!!! "Poor ending"..."Jamie needs to do some creative writing at home"...this teacher definitely sensed some specialness in you. Her expectations were really high!!! Man, in my special-ed classroom, I'd love to have first graders who could write this well!! But if a student could actually write as well as this, he/she would never end up in my room...
ReplyDeleteI could not do your job ! There would be no 'learning' in my classroom~ just~ a chorus of scribbling crayons ! This Min & Fin story is among my favorite childhood treasures. I mean, so few bits of evidence remain that point to how we become WHO we are ! This one is quite incriminating ;~j
ReplyDeleteHi Jamie! Yeah, this is a SOLID keeper. Apart from some report cards, I have no elementary school assignments/projects in my archives. Just stuff from my "sketchbooks" (things I copied from comics/cartoons/ads) that originated back in the Harlan/Burnett days...I was merely emulating what at least one other student was doing. I remember that the whole notebook-turned-into-a-drawing-pad was the result of the encouragement of one of my 3rd or 4th grade classmates. My dad supplied the Hercules, Inc. notebooks.
ReplyDeleteI agree - the teacher recognized potential - good job, teach!!
ReplyDeleteErik: I forgot that you went to Harlan ! Do you remember the name of that kid ? We met in 5th Grade, of course, in Mrs. Davis' English Class & you already were quite the Cartoonist.
ReplyDeleteMykal: I liked 1st-grade Teacher Mrs. Dungee so much, she got one of our cat's kittens !
HI Jamie! Nope, I don't remember anyone's name from those days. Just random scenes/moments. The biggest memory is that my mom volunteered as one of the chaperones to our field trip to the Natural History Museum in Philly. Back then, Harlan was 99% African-American. But then the desegregation laws finally kicked in (shouldn't that have already taken place back in the 60s?) and they changed my school to Burnett, JUST UP THE ROAD, must've been less than a mile. When did you start Burnett?
ReplyDeleteWe both started 5th grade @ Burnett; I also did 6th grade there while you were in Brasil.
ReplyDelete(pounding on table) SEQUEL! SEQUEL! SEQUEL!
ReplyDeleteUnca Jeffy: I may hold off til I'm 100 years old... that way, it will be of equal quality. To do a sequel now would only disappoint !
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ReplyDeleteInteresting! There must have been some wacky re-zoning/re-districting stuff going on that year that just shuffled the heck out of the educational whereabouts of a whole lotta youngsters (white and black). Where did you go to school before Burnett? Prior to Harlan, I went to a school that shut down. It was Woodbrigde Elementary (I remember it was boarded up not too long afterwards), or something of that sort, off of Edgemoor Road (near the river), when we lived in Clifton Park apartments (this was the very first school I attended here in the USA). I failed first grade because I didn't know English...then I went to live with my godparents (an English-only environment) in Jersey and repeated first grade. This was 1976!! I remember all the hoopla. I have vague memories afterwards...don't recall exactly where I ended up. Either Woodbridge or Harlan. In 3rd grade or so, by this time I was definitely at Harlan, my parents wanted me to get back to what my actual grade-level should have been. After I passed some tests, I was allowed to skip to the next grade (so I was no longer behind a year).
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