Academics

Math, Sentence Diagramming, History, and Shakespeare

By the time I entered ninth grade, I was beginning to get a handle on academic subjects.  Had I been better in Math, I might have graduated as an honor student.   As it was, I was on the borderline between an A and a B average.

A couple of things stand out in the early high school years.   First there was my struggle with math.   I don’t really think I’m dumb in math, but I was slow catching on.  You know how it is.  By the time you get addition and subtraction down, they throw multiplication and division at you.  Then they want you to learn fractions, followed by decimals.  After that you go on to long division, and so it goes.   I took General Math in 9^th grade, which was sort of like a pre-algebra course.  

In order to give more attention to individual students, they divided the class according to academic ranking.   I was in the slow moving group.  I was right at the top of that class, but one day they walked in and said, “We’ve got three students from the other class, who need to come down here, so we’re moving the top three into the advanced class.”   I was selected to move up.  Immediately, I was over my head.  I had been coasting through the slow moving class.   I didn’t measure up well with members of the new class.  Besides that, I sloughed off on home work.  I remained at the bottom of the advanced class.   One day our teacher, who was the football coach, said, “The students in this class are going around ole Bales like a Chevrolet going around a Ford.”  That comment reveals something about my academic performance as well as his preference in cars.

The other thing was my fascination with subjects like history, English grammar, and history.   I did very well in those subjects, mainly because they peaked my interest.   I would do a better job of thinking logically and balancing my checkbook if I had paid more attention in math class.   But in the other classes, I learned how to conjugate verbs, the parts of speech, and how they are put together in sentences.  I still think it was a mistake when our academic experts decided to eliminate diagramming sentences.   I did that pretty well. Unfortunately it’s a skill that’s not in great demand these days.  I love history – ancient history, European history, and American history (especially the Civil Period). In 9^th grade we were introduced to two important literature personalities – Shakespeare (Julius Caesar – I can still quote parts of Mark Antony’s funeral oration) and Robert Louis Stephenson.   As an adult I would have the opportunity to visit Stephenson’s grave in Western Samoa.   I love English and American literature – all the way from Shakespeare to Louis L’Amour.  I’m guessing modern day lit teachers don’t think much of Louis anymore.  Of course we didn’t have him when I was growing up, but we did have Zane Grey.  The first book I ever remember checking out of the library was Riders of the Purple Sage.