Reading, Writing, and Multiple Choice

[Anne <urbana@charter.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve <bboy_mn at y...>" 
<bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> When I was in high school, I remember most of our tests being short
> essay where a sheet of typing paper might contain 4 questions with
> space to leave your answers. So not only were we tested on that
> particular subject, but we were also graded on spelling and grammar.

I honestly can't remember what our tests (especially English tests) 
were like in high school (especially since I attended high school 
back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth...). However, I DO 
remember the daily *grind* of my 10th grade English class. 
Essentially we spent the entire 9 months studying Shakespeare. We 
probably spent a month or two on the sonnets, and the rest of the 
time we studied several of the major plays - at a pace of one play 
per month. Every night we were sent home with essentially the same 
assignment: "Write 250 (or maybe it was 500) words about the scene we 
read today." I can recall wailing and gnashing my teeth about these 
nightly themes and receiving numerous "C"s as daily grades. However, 
on the test at the end of each month I managed to get mostly "A"s. So 
all that nightly hard work must have paid off, because apparently I 
*was* able to string a few consecutive thoughts together well enough 
to suit our fairly strict teacher. I recall my classmates and I being 
very upset with our teacher's "unfairness" during the year... and 
then crying at the end of the year when we discovered she would not 
be teaching us again the next year. 

So, years later, this quote reminded me of Sister Francine and our 
10th grade English class:

"Writing is easy ... you just open a vein." (Red Smith, American 
sports writer, who died c. 1993)

Anne U
(thank you, Sister Francine, wherever you are)