A Confession: I nearly flunked sixth grade because of poor - TopicsExpress

A Confession: I nearly flunked sixth grade because of poor vocabulary test scores. I had always done fine academically; more than fine; far better than fine. But in sixth grade, I just couldnt pass a vocabulary test to save my life and the teacher, Mr. Cole, and his aides couldnt figure out what my problem was. The only other student who was doing so badly in vocabulary was my friend Clifford. He and his brother Andy had been adopted, and their mother taught first grade next to my mothers classroom two buildings over. Clifford was not a great student. Worse, he always had his head in the clouds, making up stories and drawing pictures to go with them (worse than I ever was - mostly) and so he could never pull it together to get his schoolwork done. He did have friends, but all the kids made fun of him, and called him a dummy because he did so poorly in class - especially on vocabulary tests. In fact, Clifford told the principal that the best thing about sixth grade was knowing a kid as smart as his friend Jamey Owen could do as badly on vocabulary tests as he did. The principal put it together and called me into his office where I broke down in tears, and admitted Id been throwing all the tests on purpose. Why would you do that? he asked. Because, I replied, sniffling, even the aides said hes never going to learn the words, because they think he isnt smart enough, so theyve stopped even trying. But no one can figure out why I cant, so I get extra attention every day, and so Clifford does too. And besides, no one can say hes the dumbest one in the class if my grades are worse. The principal handed me the vocabulary workbook and asked me to start filling in answers and stop when i hit a word I didnt know. I finished the entire book in under twenty minutes. He consulted with Mr. Cole, and they decided I would be in charge of Cliffords vocabulary lessons for the rest of the year - and I got near-exclusive use of the only computer in the classroom to do it. I rewrote a Yahtzee game to use all of our vocabulary words, and told Clifford that every time he beat me, he could play computer football for a while. We played a lot of Yahtzee, and a lot of football, and we goofed around even more. But I got my A, Clifford passed, and we both graduated to seventh grade. The last week of school, Mr. Cole gave me a stern lecture about what Id done. That was a big risk, he said. You really might have flunked because of those tests. Theres nothing worse for a student than flunking and being held back. Yeah, there is, I told him. Being the only one who does. - James