Today's post is dedicated to my second grade teacher, who sent home a report card to my mother indicating that, although I had great potential, I was a talker in the classroom.
The word filled me with dread. I'll never forget wondering what the consequences would be if I continued to be a talker and became an abject failure in my education. Of course, I did not know the word "abject" back then, but a new study may indicate that the reason I do know the word "abject" now is because I was a talker or — more accurately — because my parents were talkers and quite good at naming objects in the immediate environment to me when I was learning my words.
So to my beloved second grade teacher, who was very well-meaning and I'm sure just trying to manage an efficient classroom without interruptions, I would like to say that I have made two out of three careers (journalism and psychology) of being a talker, and I still enjoy being a talker very much.
But I do want to thank that teacher for being such a wonderful influence in so many other ways.
I was always getting sent to the principal's office for -- talking! So I eventually became a teacher because that allowed me to talk in front of the whole class. I could even reprimand the other students for not paying attention to me. And, now that there is no more principal's office to send me to, I can talk all I want. Hence this posting.
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