I grew up in a rural area. The district had a traveling teacher that taught gifted students one afternoon a week. I was in that class in the 3, 4, and 5 grades. In 5 grade some students got selected to be part of a whole gifted class. The only problem, it was 30 miles away. I could never understand why I wasn't selected in the 5th grade. But I was selected in the sixth grade. Those kids were smart, and 90% of them were in the class the year before; I feel now I started with a disadvantage. I don't think I was a problem student, but I just had 5 grades where I didn't learn any skills, because I could do the work without any trouble. Now the work was harder, I wasn't the smartest kid, most of the kids were local and didn't have to get up as early as me or the other travelers, I only knew three kids out of two classes of sixty. There were so many things that happened that now seem crazy, I almost think we were being experimented on by the local college. (There were a lot of student teachers to help with the class.)
At the end of January I was in an accident and missed five weeks. Late in the year the teacher told me if that hadn't have happened, she would have flunked me! I had good grades, but nothing stellar. Obviously I had a lot of work I didn't get finished, but that was because I was out of school. So she was making the assumption that if I had been in class, my grades would have slipped that far. I was very mad that day.
But I could have continued with the class, done the same program in the seventh grade. I said no thanks.
On to the seventh grade. I was again a big fish in a little pond but back with friends. Yes, I was not challenged again. I didn't know how to study, how to budget time outside of class but I was having no trouble getting A's. I was having trouble in some classes, when it turned to book reports or history essay's. I hated, and still do, the idea that some books have hidden meanings, that there are other stories behind the story. I even asked, more than once, did the author himself ever state these hidden meanings or did he just write the book to make money? And never got a straight answer.
But math and science, forget it. In pre-algebra I went through the book and did every problem in a few months. In class I would read other books, or do crossword puzzles or play chess with the person behind me. I helped him and led a study group for anyone who wanted to show up in the library. But our school was again behind the times. While the algebra teacher was a friend and let me get away with a lot, he didn't do anything to challenge me. And the curriculum turned against us. There was no honors courses, calculus, or anything advanced. I remember late in my senior year in trigonometry most of the class was having trouble with some concept. The teacher started ranting about how bad we'll do in college. He started putting calculus equations on the board and solving them. Of course we had no idea what he was doing. We had this same teacher for chemistry, physics, and geometry. He was near retirement age. I'm not saying he was senile (he's still lucid now 20 years later), but he had a lot of bad personal habits. I know I learned in spite of him, not because of him. It wasn't until I was in college, where I had to again take chemistry and physics and math, that I saw how bad he was.
But I ran into a lot of teachers like that even in college. They'd be so sure of their methods, and would rant and rave about how stupid today's students were when everyone would fail a test. They'd say we didn't work and study hard enough, but we didn't have anything to study with. Or some of them you wouldn't voluntarily spend one second with because of their personality or habits, yet we paid money for them to teach us.
Anyway, in trig and into college, my bad habits caught up with me. As I got older, things would be very easy at first so I wasn't really studying, I'd just show up and ace the test. But there'd be some point where I'd have no idea what was going on and it would happen suddenly. I never learned the basics, I just knew them but that knowledge doesn't help later. I wouldn't say this in a job interview, but my degree is worthless to me. Can anyone else admit this? If you had to take a test from a junior/senior class in your major, how good would you do? I'd be lucky to get 10% in some subjects. Yes, it is does relate to the fact I don't use it now, but back then I forgot most of the stuff over summer because I never learned it. I didn't get a job because my mind blanked on Ohm's law. (Just now I had to look it up!) But I know it, I can use it without thinking about it.
There are classes that I did great in from start to finish because I had to learn from day one, like sociology or history of theater.
To finish, I still have the same problems. I had a class in XML last year. The first few days were okay, but it got bad on Thursday and Friday. But not from trying, I was paying attention and doing the labs, but there was a tip over point where I couldn't grasp any of the new concepts. We are getting Object Oriented COBOL soon. I love the idea of OO but I just cannot grasp it fully, yet. Luckily we don't need it, it's just part of the latest version.
Kevin T. - VRWC
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