Yesterday I was helping Katie with her Math workbook.
She has been adding sets.




Do you see the little boxes on the page? The empty boxes that are waiting for a numeral?

Those little boxes brought back a sad little memory.

When I was in First or Second grade I can remember taking a test at the end of the year. I remember looking at a page with numbers and empty boxes and not knowing what to do with them.

I raised my hand.

With tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat I said to the teacher,

"How am I supposed to know what goes in the boxes?"

To my immature little mind the problems looked like a magic trick to me.

The teacher looked at me with kindness (and I'm sure dumbfounded pity) but couldn't not help me...for it was a test.


Now, I don't know if we had been using boxes in class for months....and I wasn't paying attention. That is possible. I was a day dreamer, a window-looker-outer.
Or did the fancy State test just present the material in a new way, that I wasn't aware of. I'm not sure.

But, boy, was I lost.

The little girl who slipped through the mathematical cracks.


So yesterday I told Katie that when I was a little girl I did not understand about those boxes.
She wasn't moved, really.
She just filled in the boxes.






Encourage one another,
Donna