My Favorite Teacher

I was not homeschooled. I might as well have been, as many days as I was either sick for real, or got my mom to call in and SAY I was sick. She pretty much didn't care if I went to school or not as long as I kept getting A's, so I had a lot of freedom as a kid.

I liked school all the way up until high school when I got too busy with a social life to care about wasting hours in school sleeping through things I already knew. But I have to say that 3rd grade was probably one of my favorite years, and it was due to the teacher. Her name was Mrs. Rigsby....I can say that because she is no longer living, and because very few people read this that actually know where I'm from. LOL

Mrs. Rigsby liked me too. I was "teacher's pet". She called on me all the time, thus allowing me to shine in front of an audience of other 8 year olds. She let me progress at my own pace, which meant that I finished all my books for the entire year by October, and was allowed to go outside with the other smart girl (my best friend, Laura) and play on the playground all by ourselves while the rest of the class had to sit and do lessons. Hmm....now that I think about it, maybe she just let us do that so I would stop "shining" and give other kids a chance to answer, LOL! But for real...how many public schools today would allow a kids to work through all her books in one month NOW? To be fair, I doubt the school knew she let us do that, but still....we sure thought we were cool back then.

In addition to one month of schooling and 8 months of playing outside....Mrs. Rigsby invited Laura and I to her house. For home made popcorn balls. Which no one even makes anymore because they might spike them with razor blades or something. And she introduced us to her husband as her "star pupils", which made Laura and I just about bust with pride. Laura and I used to have free reign to walk all over town. (I was the youngest of 5 kids, and my mom simply didn't care too much what I did...the older 4 tired her out. Laura was the OLDEST of 5, and her mom probably never even noticed she was missing. LOL) We went to our public library almost daily, seeing which one of us could read more books. Once we tasted Mrs. Rigsby's home made popcorn balls we began making a point to always walk past HER house on the way to the library. (Yes, I was a geek...I might have mentioned that on this blog a time or two before.)

I was always so excited to go to school in 3rd grade. I just KNEW I would have a good day (playing on the playground) and get A +'s on the rare occasions I had to take a test or something else I couldn't work ahead on. Mrs. Rigsby was not only a teacher, she was the BEST teacher I had. She knew to make a child love learning meant letting them go at their own pace,letting them be themselves. She became a friend, all the way up until she was no longer living, 20 years later.

Maybe that's why I like home schooling my daughters so much. I can let them learn at their own pace. I can let them be themselves, and not have to worry about them being homogenized versions of every other girl their age. And so far they both still consider me their friend, and there is nothing my girls and I don't share or talk about.

Anyway, here it is 2011, and I've raised 4 daughters. My YOUNGEST is now going to be entering 3rd grade. So, I've been thinking about 3rd grade, and I just wanted to put into writing how much I loved Mrs. Rigsby.