I just read a great post about common grammar mistakes. I don’t want to brag, but none of these were a surprise to me. (Okay, I needed the refresher on effect/affect. Who doesn’t?) So I tried to remember where I first learned about things like your/you’re and it’s/its.
Darlene Thompson. Sixth grade English. Atlanta C-3 School.
Then I wondered if my natural affinity for the written word is the reason I grasped those details and made them my own. (Don’t I wish.) I don’t think so. Instead, I suspect I grasped those principles because I loved the woman who taught them.
Mrs. Thompson wore bright, red finger nail polish and and a bracelet every day. She was what we called full-figured, and I think her personhood was even larger than her stature. Her classroom was upstairs in our K-12 school, so she represented our ascent from children to future adults. She was the last step of elementary school and the first step into wider horizons. And she led us there well.
Thinking of her now, forty-some years later, I can’t remember anything she ever actually said. I only remember the way I felt when she was in the room. Safe. Happy. Possible.
She probably never dreamed she was influencing future writers. Or world travelers. (Hi, Connie) Or that one of those giggly little girls would grow up to take over the high school English department in the same school — making hundreds of students feel safe. And happy. And possible. (Hi, Judy)
So, I’m grateful today for Mrs. Thompson. For her influence upon my writing and upon my friends. If she can see us today, I hope we have made her proud.
HS English teacher Mrs. Mary Ruth Couch, Knox County R1. She is the reason I know that “a lot” is correct and “alot” is not. She asked for and received permission for us to study the Bible as literature. We read and wrote about the books of Job and Ruth. I took four years of her classes at the expense of other electives I wanted and have never regretted it!
How wonderful! Thanks for joining the conversation, Carol
Oh, Kathy. I am dissolved in a puddle of tears. I love you and all the memories we made together at Atlanta C-3. I had the opportunity to thank Mrs. Thompson for teaching me grammar when I saw her at a basketball game in Macon a few years before she passed away. I am so grateful to be teaching at my school. The funny thing is I worked all this week with my juniors on plurals vs. possessives and “its” (possessive) vs. it’s (it is). And FYI “affect” is a verb and “effect” is a noun. I know you and Mrs. Thompson both know what I mean.
I’m with you in the puddle, Judy! And I’m so glad you got to thank her.
Brings back lots of memories, Mrs. Thompson, was the greatest. Thanks for sharing!
What a lovely tribute to a wonderful teacher.
Thanks, friends. We were all fortunate to know her, weren’t we?