Personal Organization A Personal Battle

I think that I spent most of 2nd grade and most of 3rd grade not having a pencil to do the work in the classroom. Why? For some reason I could not leave the house with a pencil in my pocket. So what did the little kid do.. he faked it and tried to get through the day without asking for one. Why?  So much fury would occur from impatient people who thought that they could "organize" me through aversive discipline. Do you think anyone ever learns from punishment? Common educational thought at the time and to a certain extent today.. says that if the kid doesn't have the tools to do the job, then humiliation and punishment will make it so that they surely will remember tomorrow to jolly well bring a pencil.  It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. Somehow my "phonics" workbook got "lost" on the way home from school. That method of reading never has worked for me... a concept person rather than a detail person at birth, the details were never easy for me. You really must pay attention to details and planning if you are going to read through the phonics method.. it just didn't work for me. Back in the day, those kids that didn't thrive in school were warehoused in beginner teacher classrooms with kids that were destined to not graduate from high school. This destiny was forecast upon me in 3rd grade and in 4rth grade in ended up in an overall masculine class. 28 boys and 3 girls were attending class at Southwood Elementary School.In that group was a couple of students that decided to play a stunt on the kindergarteners. They found a box of Exlax chocolate laxatives at home. When the kindergarteners were out playing they passed out these little gems as candy. It wasn't long before there was a long line of little kids headed home. Sadly these boys didn't make it though high school.

I must say that I had some parents that went to bat for me. They stormed into the office and demanded that I be moved into a more appropriate classroom. They cited my standardized scores as clearly demonstrating that I didn't belong in the lowest quartile of the 5th grade classrooms. At that time there was a distinct separation of whole classrooms by their performance. They were content to place me in the lowest quartile (the lowest fourth class) based on the recommendation of my third grade teacher. Education in the classroom was basically dead for me there. I made it into a more challenging class and I rose to the challenge and never looked back. The first grading period yeilded me straight C grades. My parents felt that report card would not encourage me to do better. When they analyzed the situation they figured that the grades were really their purview and not mine. The offered me a dollar if I would turn in my report card to them without looking at it.  I received the dollar and I still have no idea what grades I received in Mrs Peterson's 5th grade class.

 In 6th grade I had my first male teacher. He was a retired pilot from the Berlin airlift. He kind of understood my personal organization difficulties.  I was in the district's honor band playing trumpet. Once a week we would get out of class a little early to attend the district wide rehersal. I would head to the bus and about half way there I would remember that I needed to have my trumpet in its case. Mr. Sullivan would alert the class that I had forgotten my instrument once again. They would wait with baited breath as I made my way back to the classroom to get my instrument. You would think that such adverse response would help be remember to get it first... but no..

 My main chore at home was to get the trash out on Sunday night. It needed to be put out on the curb so that the sanitation workers could jump off their trucks and hoist our can into the back as the truck slowly moved on. There were a number of very early awakings that Dad hauled me out of bed in the dark to get that chore done since I had forgotten to do it the night before.  Do you think that this helped with my overall issue... nope.

 So how did I conquer this as an adult. I was always looking for my keys to go to work. I had to make sure that all of my keys were on the same ring.. and that ring was needed to start the car. When they were not needed anymore.. they had to go directly in my pocket. When I was carrying a brief case at work I positioned the brief case so that I had to trip on it as I left. It would awaken me to the need to pick it up on the way out of the door.. otherwise I would leave it. I also developed lessons that I could use at a any given situations that didn't require the materials contained in the brief case.

 I know that there are many people out there with my same issue. They go through life prosecuted and demeaned for this. I made up my mind early in life that I would be a supporter rather than a detractor for this students as they passed through my experience. I always had a supply of pencils and pens that I freely gave out to my students so that they would not be punished for not having the tools that they needed to do school. I helped them work out concept solutions to organization issues that they faced through their lives.