"Shame" Blog

When I was young it was a common occurrence to move at random, and so I attended many different schools as a result.   Elementary school was the time I moved the most. I was in third grade when this particular experience took place. An exact day is vague, but I remember that it was summer. My mother did not have a car so she had to walk me to school. If you have not been to Las Vegas in the summer, let me tell you that it is hot! It did not take too long to get to school, maybe twenty minutes, but because it was so hot it seemed like it took forever. It was the middle of the school year when I started this school. My third grade class was in the middle of learning times tables. Every day I would arrive late to class, not too late, but late enough that my teacher would be very upset that I disrupted her class. She had a punishment for late arrivers. When the bell rang for recess, my classmates and I would line up at the door, so excited about getting to run around outside and play. Single file, my classmates would leave the classroom one by one, all except for me. She would tell me that I had to stay inside and recite my times tables before going outside. It was my punishment for being late. Because I moved so much and changed schools so often, I was always behind in school, so reciting all of my times tables without help was an impossible task. It seemed that I would never get to go play at recess. Every morning I would try to get ready as fast as I could so that I could make it to class on time, but it seemed like no matter what time we left, I was always late. So I took another approach. Every night I would go over my times tables for as long as I could so that the next day at school I could recite them all in a flash, and then get to go outside and play. Eventually this method worked. I didn’t get to play outside as long as the other children, but at least I got some play time, which is all a third grader wants.

 One day while walking to class I was telling my mom about learning my times tables, and why I had learned them so fast. When my mother learned that I was being punished for arriving late to class, she was furious. We never got to class so fast. I remember walking into class and sitting down at my desk, and my mother asked to speak to the teacher outside. Not long after, my mother got me out of my seat and I never returned to that school. After this incident I realized that I was being punished unjustly, but at the time I thought I was breaking a rule, and so I had to be punished, and for an eight year old I think I did a good job handling the situation. I was very upset with my mother for taking me out of that school and placing me in another, but I understand now why she did. Although the beginning and the end of the situation was negative, I think the overall outcome was positive. One of the positive results being that I can recite my times tables in a flash, as well as I am very rarely late for class!