Childhood Rituals
Evolution of a cardboard box
As every parent of a small child can attest, children love to play with boxes. Sometimes they like boxes more than the things within them. They use the boxes as cars that race around tracks, ships that sail to far-off lands, or rocket ships to fly to distant planets.
Renegade that I was, I would flip the box over and turn it into a desk. Sure, sometimes I would pretend to have a business, but most of the time I pretended to be a teacher.
When I got older I was given a desk, and it was my prized possession.
When I was 12 my sister was old enough for kindergarten. She had seizures from the time she was a toddler and it caused her to have some delays. She wouldn’t be allowed to attend kindergarten.
My mom gave me my first teaching job. She gave me a booklet that they had given her at the kindergarten screening. Mom wanted me to use the booklet to get my sister up to par.
Every day I worked with my sister, trying to get her up-to-speed for the next screening.
By the next screening, it was determined that she could go to kindergarten but every day of the week. That way she could get more instruction.
That summer, we spent most days working on the skills she needed and working on pronouncing words from my spelling book. I loved teaching, and it became a fun game for the two of us.
By the time school started, my sister was able to attend every other day. My first class was a success!
After that, every activity I took part in was with the end of becoming a teacher in my sights.
I went to college with that as my goal. I made it within three semesters before Multiple Sclerosis put an end to my dream. Still, I consider it a success. I taught my sister, I taught neighborhood children in a reading group, and I taught my daughter.
I’m happy with my teaching career.