Since I did not attend Kindergarten, I had not yet learned to read when I began my 1st grade year in Mrs. Tuttle’s class. My brother, being in 7th grade, ever the helpful mentor, decided…
Posts published by “Jean Swearingen”
One of the first lessons that my mother learned as a beginning teacher in Boonville in 1956 was to become friendly with as many of the staff at the elementary school as possible in the…
We reached the top of the cliff, and the blue Pacific spread like infinity before us. “The ocean, the ocean!” the children cried, springing from their seats in delight. There was no place for a…
I never attended Kindergarten. I’ve had the audacity, over the years and decades, to claim that fact as the underlying reason for every life failure (or life lesson gone awry) that I’ve ever experienced since…
If I were to sum it up using the current terminology, I would say my first childhood home had very good “energy.” It was a happy time for all of us — my father continuing to develop his ministerial skills, my mother beginning her teaching career (which continued for another 25 years), my brother entering adolescence and me beginning school and piano lessons (which continued for another six years).