With
the beginning of seventh grade Droozy had become the teachers’ pet. She was an
excellent student, straight A’s. She had learned English rapidly and spoke as
well as any of her classmates except that she sometimes made a “v” out of a
“w”, for example she’d say “vieners” instead of “wieners”. Her
English teachers were a Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, who were exceptionally kind to
young Droozy. They would often take time after class explaining strange little
phrases called idioms. Mr. McElroy the math teacher insisted that Droozy would
some day become a mathematician since she rarely made an error in addition,
multiplication, or division. One day when she earned a B on her exam Droozy
became sad and tearful. Mr. McElroy comforted her by assuring her that no one
can earn one hundreds all the time, and that one test did not mean that she
would not earn an A on her final report card. One
day the children were asked to write a composition which they would have to read
aloud in class. Droozy was called upon to read hers to the class. She was full
of enthusiasm and did not hesitate to share her story with her classmates. As
Droozy was reading, hilarious laughter broke out. Droozy became very embarrassed
and could not understand why this had happened. She looked around, gazed down at
her dress thinking that perhaps her slip was showing. She felt the back of her
dress, perhaps it was unbuttoned or untied; she felt her face and wiped her nose
carefully with her handkerchief, yet the laughter continued. Droozy stopped
reading altogether, she was so ashamed; she could feel her cheeks become tomato
red. The more upset she became, the louder became the laughter. What had
happened, what had happened? Mrs. Campbell clapped her hands together and
demanded that the class stop the noise. She then quietly explained that a phrase
that her star pupil had used was wrong. Droozy had described a river as having
deep/shallow waters. She had not understood that deep and shallow are opposites
of each other. It did teach Droozy to look into a dictionary when she was not
certain of the meaning of a word that she wanted to use. |
|