Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Elementary School memories

1 view
Skip to first unread message

db...@ix.netcom.com

unread,
May 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/1/98
to

Gosh, those were the days. I was born in 1966, so I grew up in the
70's. And my Elementary School memories were just excellent. I was
thinking about how this guy brought in a tape recorder (Panasonic,
flat with the handle) and he would blast (or try to) KISS music. All
that you heard was just noise.

There were a lot of nice memories, some not so nice.

But let me ask you all about your teachers. Did you have any memories
of one of your teachers saying something that in retrospect was just
completely incorrect or even dumb?

Mrs. Nafman, my 5th grade teacher, was not a very nice person. A
typical no-nonsense New Yorker type, she was always demanding the
highest standards, and had respect for us. In return we were well
behaved, mature for 5th graders, and had respect for her.

But Mrs. Nafman said something pretty silly one day. When asked why
you still heard sound for a split second after you shut a radio off,
her explanation was that it was due to the speed of sound. After you
"click" turned a radio off you still heard sound because it took a
short amount of time for the sound to travel from the speaker to your
ears.

Of course this is silly because the speed of sound is more than 760
mph (depending on the temperature). But I always remember her being
so authoritative about something she didn't know much about.

Dave


ewh...@uscsumter.edu

unread,
May 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/1/98
to

In article <6ibgif$l...@dfw-ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>#1/1,

db...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>
>
>
> But let me ask you all about your teachers. Did you have any memories
> of one of your teachers saying something that in retrospect was just
> completely incorrect or even dumb?
>

I guess this goes along with the Wacky Packs thread, but in kindergarten I
used to have a necklace that was a Taster's Choke package (like Taster's
Choice coffee). I showed it to my teacher because I thought it was the
funniest thing in the world. She insisted, "No, it says Taster's Choice, not
Taster's Choke." I guess she thought I was just a dumb little kid who
couldn't read or something!

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading

na...@nicanor.acu.edu

unread,
May 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/1/98
to


> > But let me ask you all about your teachers. Did you have any memories
> > of one of your teachers saying something that in retrospect was just
> > completely incorrect or even dumb?

I used to wonder about teachers who seemed so angry all the time. I had a 7th
grade Texas history teacher who was like this. We could never joke with her or
even try to talk to her at lunch or recess because she always acted like we
were trying to cause trouble no matter what.

One day we took a trip to the San Jacinto monument outside of Houston, where
Texas won its independence from Mexico. For those of you who haven't seen it,
it is a very tall tower, much like the Washington monument...except it is a
gold color with a star on top. As usual, we weren't having any fun because
this teacher was glaring at everyone, daring us to have a good time. I tried
to lighten things up by saying, "Mrs. Dawson, how could they have a battle
with this big tall thing in the way?" With a angry, red face and through
clenched teeth, she said,"It wasn't there then, Deana!"

Duh. No kidding. I never understood why she was a teacher. She seemed to hate
everything about teaching...even field trips that were supposed to be fun.

This same teacher assigned a report on "Albert Edison." We were too scared to
ask her who she meant, so half the class did reports on Thomas Alva Edison and
the half did Albert Einstein. This made her so angry she glared extra hard for
weeks. I still don't know who Albert Edison was.

db...@ix.netcom.com

unread,
May 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/2/98
to

Do you think she was trying to protect your innocence? Or perhaps she
was just not reading with her glasses. You know how it is when you
get older, you don't look close enough, and you can tend to not take
children too seriously or treat them with much respect....Interesting
memory though. Your impressions were probably correct because
children are very perceptive.....

Dave

Dixon Hayes

unread,
May 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/2/98
to

> In article <6ibgif$l...@dfw-ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>#1/1,
> db...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > But let me ask you all about your teachers. Did you have any memories
> > of one of your teachers saying something that in retrospect was just
> > completely incorrect or even dumb?

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Linebarger, once jumped me in front of the
whole class for putting Nestle's Quick in my milk in the lunchroom. (Hey,
I wasn't a white milk person, okay?) She gave some wacky speech about how
I couldn't be like everyone else, and didn't I look goofy. My mother, who
was in the hospital after giving birth to my youngest sister, was so PO'ed
she called Old Lady Linebarger (from the hospital!) and blessed her out.

To Mrs. Linebarger's credit, she did predict the day we would be able to
shop without leaving our own homes--we'd just see what we want on TV and
make a phone call to get what we wanted. We were actually wowed to hear
this back in 1971!

Dixon "hey lady, stir THIS!!!" Hayes

ewh...@uscsumter.edu

unread,
May 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/3/98
to

In article <6ick30$bfm$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>#1/1,

na...@nicanor.acu.edu wrote:
>
> I used to wonder about teachers who seemed so angry all the time. I had a
7th
> grade Texas history teacher who was like this.

One day I walked up behind my 5th grade teacher and she was talking to
herself. She was saying, "Get a hold of yourself" or something to that
effect. I can totally empathize with her, because our class was horrible that
year. Nevertheless, she always scared me to death.

I guess teachers are just human, even though to kids they can seem larger than
life. Maybe they are going through some personal problems at home, or maybe
the class is awful. My 3rd grade teacher was quite humorless and stern.
Later I found out that she had suffered a miscarriage that year, so perhaps
she wasn't as patient with us as she could have been.

Ignatius J. Reilly

unread,
May 5, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/5/98
to

db...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>
> But let me ask you all about your teachers. Did you have any memories
> of one of your teachers saying something that in retrospect was just
> completely incorrect or even dumb?
>

Well, in fourth grade I had Ms. Phyllis Stinnett. She once told us that
the Sahara was not the larget desert in the world - the Gobi was. For
years, I just assumed every other textbook and teacher was wrong!

Once, she told us about going to a New Year's party at Watergate, and
some guy making a pass at her. Not very appropriate for fourth graders.

She also told us, when asked, that the Nile was not the largest river in
the world, the Amazon was. This is technically correct - the Amazon has
a larger volume of water "throughput" than the Nile. But I think what
the student who asked wanted to know was, what's the longest river in
the world. This one even I didn't buy.

Once in a while, she would make a student scratch her back. We all
dreaded "back duty" but she only did it once or twice in the entire
school year. I'll never forget the look on poor Suzy Stollmeyer's face
when she had to do it.

Her class was also the year I was determined to have perfect attendance
- I went to school even when I was sick. I wonder how much other stuff
I "mis-learned" that year!

We also had a textbook (maybe in fifth grade) that said 6 million people
died in the Civil War (should be 600,000). Again, for years I thought
every other textbook was wrong. I was much more impressionable back
then, I guess!


Kent
--
delete pesky X's to email

0 new messages