Wed 23 Dec 2009 |
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It's Christmas Eve and we need a heartwarming story.
Although I write a humor blog these days and live in New York City, I once was an elementary school teacher in a rural area. This is one of my best memories from those days. It's not funny or irreverent, as these posts tend to be, but maybe it helps explain why I'm Not Bitter . . Sometimes you actually do something good, something that changes things. My first year as a teacher (I only lasted two years, but that's another story), I had a kid in my fourth grade class named Jimmy. One of the first things that Jimmy told me was that he was "dumb." That startled me a bit, and when I questioned him, he elaborated: everyone knew he was dumb, he had always been dumb, and he had even been left back in the third grade. Very Forrest Gump. And yet. Something about this kid got under my skin. First of all, I knew — just knew — that he wasn't unintelligent. (I discourage the use of the word "dumb" in any event, boys and girls). I didn't care what the IQ test indicated, or what anybody else said, or how many grades he had repeated. For one thing, he had asked me a question — the question, actually — the question that has no answer. Which is: If God made everything, who made God? I told him that he should talk to someone at his church, but come on, a kid who's "dumb" doesn't ask something like that in the first place. There were other signs, too, but I had 37 other kids in the class (really!) and didn't have time to figure out what was wrong. Until one day, a chain of events was set off that would explain it all . . . No books at the inn:The science books didn't arrive. Thirty-eight kids, no text books, the education system sucked then too. Without books, I had to read the material to the class from the teacher's manual and discuss it with them. Afterwards, I gave a simple True or False test. T or F. And guess what, Jimmy answered every single question correctly. 100%. Same story the next time. And the time after that. He was amazed. The other kids were amazed. One teacher even suggested that he had a 50/50 shot each time, and he was just being lucky! But when I questioned him about the material, he had understood it very well. Better than I did, actually, since science is not my strong suit. I was now determined to solve this mystery. (It is not for nothing that I ended up producing Nancy Drew years later.) The story was simply this: Jimmy wore glasses, very strong glasses — but he hadn't always had them. In fact, when he started school, he could hardly see the words on a page, much less read them. It was only because he was so bright (which a follow-up test showed) that he learned to read at all - after he got his glasses. But by then he was hopelessly behind, and was thought to be slow." When he got to my class, he was reading about a year or so below grade level, and couldn't have handled the science book, although he had no trouble at all with the concepts. But he had bought into the idea that he was dumb, that he couldn't learn, and this had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Looking back, it's surprising that no one had figured this out. But no one had. Anyway, Case Closed. One of my most prized possessions is a letter from his father telling me that I changed the course of his son's life. Well, a little bit of luck didn't hurt either, but still. When I get down on myself for all the mistakes I make (and I make more mistakes per square inch than anyone I know), I think about this episode in my life, and figure that hey, I'm not as dumb as I look . . . HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYBODY! Especially to Jimmy, wherever you are.
This story appeared in www.littlefoureyes.com |
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Bitter Patter
NO LAUGHING MATTER:
Did Demi Moore overdose
on laughing gas??
That's what's being reported
to those of us at:
A DEVOUT COWARD
GOES TO THE DENTIST
Have you seen The Artist? Seeing it mentioned at
The Golden Globes reminded me that that not ALL movies are
Incredibly Loud!
Do NOT Google Santorum.
I warned you . . .
I did it!
I actually got that
LITTLE BLACK DRESS!
How hard was it?
Click on the link above.
I also got my iPhone.
It's great.
Thank you Steve Jobs
Wherever you are.
Just as I posted I WAS THE GIRL PHANTOM, I found a website called The Ghost Who Blogs about The Phantom comics:
http://falkonthewildside.blogspot.com
Writing Comics. . .
Was a small but wonderful part of my checkered career, and doing a post about it brought back a lot of great memories. If you know any other women in NYC who wrote — or are writing — comics, tell me how to get in touch with them.
I'm on a watching-old-movies kick these days.
Great way to lose yourself.
If you're lucky, you'll never be found.
REVIEWS TO PERUSE
I'm All Right, Jack:
"Jack" is not just all right, it's totally delightful and fresh as a daisy after all these years (made in 1959), with Sellers, although not technically the lead, giving the brilliant performance that launched him as an international star. He plays an all-too-zealous union leader and father of a blonde bombshell who falls for Stanley, the British Upper Class Twit played, also to perfection, by Ian Carmichael, who you might remember from the Lord Peter Wimsey series. The makeout scenes between the the Twit and the Bombshell are priceless. But what is Stanley doing in this working class atmosphere anyway? Working. And too well at that. Forced by financial circumstances too dreary to discuss, he gets a job in his uncle's factory and messes things up for the other workers by, well, working, and thus making his fellow employees look bad. The film takes a big shot at unions — but also at management: they are manipulating white-collar thieves who'll do anything for a buck. Or a pound. Except for the ones, like Major Hitchcock, played by Terry Thomas, who are just plain lazy and inept. Needless to say, Stanley foils everybody's plans, labor and management alike, to my great joy and delight. Oh, and on top of everything else, Margaret Rutherford plays dotty dowager Aunt Dolly. Delicious!
The Big Lebowski:
What can you say that hasn't been said before: brilliant, inspired, with some of the most memorable lines ever to come out of a movie, the most quoted being "The Dude abides." Oh yes. For anyone who hasn't yet seen the film, and it's now out in a special Blu-Ray edition if that floats your bowling ball. The Dude in question, played to perfection by Jeff Bridges, is an out-of-work pothead who is roughed up and has his rug destroyed by some thugs mistaking him for another, bigger, Lebowski. The Dude is really upset about this because, man, "that rug really tied the room together," which The Dude says with all seriousness and not a trace of irony, a great comic touch considering the condition his condition is in. Oh, and besides "Just Dropped In," all the music is perfect for the film. The plot, according to Wikipedia, which has been known to be wrong, is "loosely based on Raymond chandler's novel, The Big Sleep." Could be. But who cares. It involves a bowling competition, "the occasional acid flashback," a trophy wife, a group of German nihilists, a kidnapping gone awry, a mad millionaire and his lackey, in another great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Actually, they're all great performances. Never a fan of John Goodman before or since, he is brilliant in this film. And so are John Turturro, overacting his little heart out, Steve Buscemi in a nerdy, needy role that makes you marvel at his star turn in Boardwalk Empire, and even the actors in the smaller parts, especially Julianne Moore and Sam Elliott. Elliott plays The Stranger (God? Everyman? The part of us that roots for the bad boy?) who elicits from Bridges the immortal words, "The Dude abides." Which prompts The Stranger to comment to the audience: "Don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope he makes the finals." We'll never know about the bowling trophy because there's never been a sequel to this 1998 film by the great Coen Brothers, and I hope there never will be. It just abides, as all great films do.
Prince of the City:
Okay, the criticisms of this movie are not totally unfounded: it's too long, and Treat Williams may have overacted a bit, although I found him so deliciously charming I couldn't care less, and there's one part concerning the Jerry Orbach character I just didn't understand. But get over it, The New Yorker, this is one powerful movie. And yes, Dog Day Afternoon it isn't, but what it? The DVD has a great special feature with Williams (I so want to call him Treat) and Sidney (what the hell: I once made a meatloaf sandwich for the man) that explains a lot about filmmaking in general and this movie in particular. Also, Sidney's views on good and evil, and how things are not so black and white as you think. I loved it.
Bad Day At Black Rock:
Recommended on TCM by Robert Osbourne as a film he originally had no interest in seeing, then loved it, and by Alex Baldwin, who pointed out the great actors in the cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Brognine and Dean Jagger. Well, after all that, I had to like it, right? I did. A lot. It was a Good Day On My Couch.
Behind the Scenes Stuff: Spencer Tracey was off drinking and wouldn't commit to the film until the producers (who wanted him desperately) told him that they had Alan Ladd, at which point Tracey grabbed it. He was perfect for the part, wearing a dark suit and tie the entire time in a western setting, pulling it off perfectly. Other than that "fashion statement," the film makes a strong case against racism: the hatred of the Japanese during WW2. See it.
Song of The Thin Man:
I usually like these frothy, silly, suave, utter unrealistic films from the 30s and 40s, with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the couple we'd all like to be — if only we had the looks, brains, money, a huge capacity for drinking and a dog like Asta. But this one was a stinker, rather than a stinger, or maybe a sinker, because it turned out to be the last, not to mention the least, in the series. Watch any of the others four sequels, but not this one: Even the pooch jumped the shark.
The Children's Hour:
It had its moments, and just looking at Audrey Hepburn makes life worth living, but mostly I kept thinking that the play, by Lillian Hellman, was so much better. It's about two young women runing a school for girls, who are accused by a hateful little brat of being (GASP!) lesbians. And although the closest we get in this 1961 production to using that actual term is the word "unnatural," it's enough to ruin their lives. A young Shirley McClaine is worth seeing in this, and James Garner, and Audrey Hepburn is, well, Audrey Hepburn. The rumor of the love that dare not speak its name is totally untrue — or is it? And I'll say no more, because you should see the movie for yourself, imperfect as it may be, as is Life Itself.
by martinis alone,
I like this blog:
grapesandgreens.blogspot.com
BITTER PATTER
Click on:
Welcome To My Blog
Scroll down to
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from the past.
It's Christmas Eve and we need a heartwarming story.





Comments
A PC Happy Holiday to all in blogdom!
Wish you were here with us!
Richard and Hank
Sent from The Queen Mary somewhere in the Caribbean . . .
What a great story. Even better because it's true. I never knew you
were a teacher, but I should have known, because you've taught me a lot
over the years.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Love the Jimmy story...I taught Kindergarten for 15 years and have so many "Jimmy" stories!Being a teacher is a very 'Important" Job (I won't say hard) Any person traveling through life 'touches' so many others and make little 'life changing' differences along the way!It's like you said a class of 37 children in one place for 180 days per year makes your chances more likely and more often! I taught approximately 350 kids in the 15 years and I think I even kept a journal for a while of all the touching, funny 'things' that occured in Mrs. Zarro's Teddy Bear Kindergarten Class I should find it and publish it! Believe it or not,between class lists, address books, Christmas Cards lists, facebook, etc., I still keep in touch with many of my Kindergarteners and their parents from 1986! Loved that job I made a dent and a difference to many and they to me as well!
You are the BEST and being a Teacher even if only for 2 years definitely added to why you are NOT BITTER!
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