Going for 100

     There is a post on Facebook lately that says something to the effect – someone told me once that I was smart and then I was. Thinking back on it, I believe it was the dreaded Mr. Friar from sixth grade who treated me like I was smart. And from that point through the rest of my schooling I wanted to see, as a personal goal, how far my smarts would go.

     By ninth grade, getting good grades was my main focus in day to day life. Algebra was a regents class. This meant that at the end of the school year, everyone in the state of New York taking algebra would take the same regents exam – and I heard that it was even possible to get a 100% on the final exam!

     My teacher was Mr. Connors. I can picture him and where I sat in class. But I cannot think of any anecdotes – all I really remember is that algebra was fun and for me it was easy – and I was driving myself to get a higher and higher grade. At the end of the year, the final exam was easy, and I thought I might have gotten a 100% - but I was off by just a little – must have missed one multiple choice question.

     Personal typing class was a similar experience. Mom encouraged me to take this one semester course – she said that everyone should know the keyboard, it would come in handy for report writing. The teacher was an elderly woman who I think also taught the secretarial typing class – and I do not remember her name.

     I do recall feeling guilty in the class because again I was driven to get the highest grade possible and not so driven to be a particularly great typist. We had daily lessons on the keyboard and had to turn in typed papers – we were graded on accuracy but we did not have to turn in a paper until it was as perfect as we wanted. So of course, I only handed in assignments that were totally perfect – no typos at all. But while making sure I had no typos, I was mostly looking at the keyboard rather than practicing not looking.

     I worried a little that my 100% average in the class would be at the expense of my personal typing skills. Another classmate would look out the window as she typed. I envied her as I sat hunched over the typewriter – feeling guilty but not guilty enough to look away and risk a lower grade.

     Three years later, when the same classmate and I were seniors, I overheard her say one day that she could not type worth a darn. Apparently what she had learned in class was not something she kept up with afterward. I, however, had typed many a paper since then and learned the keyboard and could type while looking out the window – all except the numbers line – I still have to look when typing numbers. I am by no means the fastest typist in the land, nor am I typo free (ah wouldn't that be refreshing?) - but I'd have to say that the class stuck.

     All these many years later, I am better at typing than at algebra, but if I did algebra every day, I would be okay at it. Maybe when I retire I'll get an algebra workbook or perhaps look for an internet site that offers a daily algebra problem – it might keep me sharper than the evil level sudokus I do now!

203 20150722 Going for 100