3rd Grade
Selfe, Dickie

>>DICKIE: I'm trying to remember some of my younger years; I don't remember much. I think I was like a terrified little kid and didn't talk much to anybody so I think I just blank most of it. I do have some very tiny little memories of literacy activities when I was in the third grade, I think it was then. I had a teacher and her name was Mrs. Campbell and she wasn't a frightening person but she was very determined, I remember that part. Even as a kid I didn't know what that meant but the few things that I remember about the class, one is reading in circles and we would sit around and we would read aloud and apparently I must have contributed because she wasn't looking for any non-participation. We seemed to be reading a lot and I think that was also the first year that anybody ever took me to the library and I found a book that I loved, it was about the West and buffalos, that's about all I remember of it. I checked it out and I don't even know if I actually could read it at the time but I just was infatuated with the pictures and the whole idea about the West. I lived in Texas so it was sort of a big deal for the culture. So I fell in love with that book and there was this one other thing that I didn't like very much but it probably made some differences, SRA systems where you will read a little story and then do some answers to the thing and do some tests on them and try to work your way through these massive, tiny stories. It seemed very tedious and frustrating and insurmountable to me but somehow I think she got me engaged in it so that I actually jumped a couple of grade levels. I don't think I was much of a reader back then. That's all I can remember of elementary school, literacy, and most of my classes in general, they're just a blank except for these little, tiny memories - it's a sad thing but it is.