i had to read ‘the giver’ in fifth grade and my mom found out later that it was controversial for some reason and parents didn’t want their kids reading it but i couldn’t figure out why.
Category: (1989–1994) elementary school
*fifth grade research project
one time in my special program in fifth grade, i had to do some kind of research project and didn’t work on it until the day it was due. i did not do any research but made some clay jewelry and put it in a shoebox like a diorama. i had a lot of shame about it.
*gifted program
in 4th grade the school told my mom i was gifted and had to go to a special program every monday in 5th grade. i hated it. one time i late on purpose so i missed the bus but they made me go anyway. there was another boy from my school who had to go too but he cried a lot and eventually dropped out. i didn’t hate everything about it. i liked calligraphy and painting with watercolors and magic eye puzzles.
*corn
at some point during my childhood i decided i didn’t like corn. i liked most other vegetables. i certainly liked butter. but something about corn really bothered me. a roommate made me try corn on the cob when i was 23 and i enjoyed it.
*connotations
sometime during elementary school, i remember using a word i’d read, (and subsequently looked up in the dictionary,) in conversation with a teacher and she laughed and told me that wasn’t what that word meant. when i explained that i’d looked it up in the dictionary and how i’d used it was technically correct within that definition, she told me about “connotation.” that may have been when i started to think language can be fun.
questioningmyneurotype 