Third Grade and Problems

It Could Have Been Worse

In the third grade, I knew I couldn’t read as fast as the rest of the class. My teacher knew it too. That is why she set this Electric Reading Machine on my desk. She plugged it into the wall socket and set the reading speed slightly slower than the average third-grader could read.

Her instructions were simple. Read the lines of the story as fast as possible so they don’t disappear before you get to the end of each line. Then when finished reading the story, answer the questions about the story you read.

I couldn’t read the lines of print before they disappeared from view. The story had no meaning when that many words were skipped. When taking the quiz, I was good at guessing but poor at guessing the right answers.

Naturally, the teacher reset the speed for me and asked me again to do my best with another story. Again, the words at the ends of the sentences disappeared before I could read them, and of course, I achieved the same results when she corrected the quiz. I am thankful I can’t remember if she said, “At least, you are good at guessing.”

Reason Discovered, But Never Solved

To make any sense of the meaning of a word, I had to sound out (or say to myself) each word. This made for slow reading.


This weakness followed me through high school and on even to now. To overcome this weakness for reading-type classes, I spent extra time reading the assigned chapter word by word.

I was thankful for one thing during my high school years. I was a “loner.” I was content to be by myself. So, I took my school books home almost every night “to study.” I don’t know if the other nine classmates ever knew this or even thought of this being the reason I always took my books home every night.

Since you know my weakness, let me add a positive note so you won’t feel sorry for me. I got good grades and was the Salutatorian in our class of 10 students. I was always pushing “that pretty girl,” Kay, ahead of me.

Furthermore, I’ll also give you a negative about me to balance things out. In Nebraska, where I lived much of my life, the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln, Nebraska, always had the senior high school students take a Regence (sp) Scholarship test. Those at the top level received a scholarship to the University of Nebraska. I received a scholarship to the University. Now get ready for the negative. I sometimes joke about it. But, everyone has to take a placement test as they enter the University of Nebraska. This was no big deal to me. What was surprising to me was the fact that I failed the English part of that test. This meant I had to sign up for “Dumb Bell English.” I took my English class, as well as a German class that year. I think I learned my English Grammar in my German class.

As water runs under a bridge, so also must my life.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)