31 Jul 2024 Finding the best way for your way

Posted at 8:21 PMh in Features by

By Vivian Lawson Hogue

The year 1949 saw my introduction to our local educational system. Kindergarten was not free, so I had not attended. First grade was a joy as I finally had others my gender and age to play with and talk to. I enjoyed the school lunches when Mother had a spare quarter; otherwise it was peanut butter on slices of Kroger’s 25¢-a-loaf sandwich bread. When we had music, it was fun putting my right foot in, taking it out and putting it back in and shaking it all about. I did the hokey pokey and turned myself around, and that’s what it was all about, regardless of my peanut butter sandwich starting to churn in my stomach.

I could read, say my ABC’s and print when I reached first grade. My mother, a former teacher who had taught all grades in a one-room schoolhouse, read to me and would often have me read passages along with her. She also taught me to cook, clean, iron and shop. She would be surprised today to find she was homeschooling! I’m not sure the four older boys were so privileged, but she and dad were busy dealing with the Great Depression, their house burning and World War II to do much of that.

My favorite first-grade playground feature was the monkey bars. Girls were not allowed to wear long pants or jeans, so whatever was displayed when you were hanging by your knees from the monkey bars was out there for the world to see. I began to see why girls played in one area while the boys were in another.

I enjoyed the creative side of things—gardening, writing, drawing, coloring, cursive writing and, shall we say, “conversational skills.” It was the latter that I used during arithmetic classes, so I spent many of them on a stool in a corner at the front of the room. Other times, I was sent out into the hall, where I would tell passersby that I was a “hall monitor.” My short-term goal was to make it to the end of the year without being incarcerated in the cloakroom with recycled lunch sacks containing “baloney” sandwiches.

After I cut off the pigtails of the girl in front of me, I think Miss Sharp praised the Lord and joyfully passed me on to Mrs. Clark for second grade. I’ll go ahead and say that my math skills never improved, even through college. Numbers, reading problems and geometric lines and shapes just weren’t my strength. No one knew about left- and right-brained-ness yet, but I could have told them.

Out of the five of us siblings, it was interesting that the boys knew what they wanted to be “when they grew up,” but the girl just wanted to enjoy the world around her. However, grades and grade levels became important. The word “grade” can mean a learning level, using large machinery to change the terrain, rating sandpaper grit, evaluating a gemstone or reaching a certain level in the military or a government office. What I eventually discovered was that people often end up doing work they never thought about or maybe didn’t even want to do, but did, did it well and enjoyed it.

I can say it out loud now, but I believe that not everyone is immediately ready to attend college upon high school graduation. I include myself in that belief.  After years of raising my children, I found myself needing to work and provide. I got back into college, and a wonderful educator, Dr. Audie Lynch, looked at my previous college’s transcript of long ago when I was aimless and goal-less. He did note that my math grades didn’t help my grade point, but I was salvageable. “Why don’t you teach art and history?” he asked. I thought, “Yes! Why don’t I?” I put my right brain in and shook it all about. No hokey pokey needed. I loved learning again and could have gone more years just for the fun of it. My niche was found, although it was the last field I would have thought to pursue.

Sometimes making the grade means you have come to beneficial terms with yourself and life. Our brains were God-designed to react, reason, remember, analyze, use our senses, control our movements, speech and breathing, process information, and that’s only the half of it. Whether it is in a tech school, vet school, apprenticeship or college, everyone should be able to plug into their best way of learning and at the right time.

As it was with myself, even long out of high school, it may be that it will take someone else to address your talents and interests. If it is math, you have my sincere admiration from afar. As for myself, I’m just going to go make a peanut butter sandwich and draw, write or plant something. 

Vivian Lawson Hogue
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