I was pondering some deep thoughts recently, and I was thinking about the process of learning (especially in relation to language). When we’re young, we’re learning so many things. Every day, every moment practically, is filled with discovery. Since there is so much knowledge that’s being soaked up during this stage of life, it’s not surprising that we don’t remember learning it all. I don’t recall finding out that a book is called a “book,” nor do I remember the specific moment I found out it was spelled b-o-o-k.

All this to say, there are some things I *do* remember learning. Why have these moments in my educational history stuck themselves so firmly in my memory? As far as I can tell, none of these are associated with strong emotions or anything, they’re simply specific times when I learned something about English.

Here’s a brief list and description of some of the English lessons I remember:

1. Third grade, spelling. I was one of the best spellers in my class. I rarely misspelled the words on the “smart kid” spelling list. One day, however, we were asked to spell “balloon.” I remember wondering which letters were doubled, and in the end, I got a little carried away. I spelled the word b-a-a-l-l-o-o-n. When Mrs. Nelson checked my paper and showed me my mistake, I planted the correct spelling in my brain. I haven’t misspelled it since.
2. Fourth grade, vocabulary. We had a student teacher in our class, and she was helping us through our English reader. We were looking at a chapter from one of the “Little House” books. I remember the student teacher pointing out the word “desolate” and explaining its definition. That day, the word became a permanent part of my vocabulary.
3. Fourth grade, spelling. Dad was helping me study my spelling list at home. I kept messing up the word “calendar.” I would spell it with an e-r at the end, then say, “A-r? E-r? E-r. A-r?” I said both endings so much that I had no idea which was correct. Dad finally said, “Okay, now spell it backwards. Radnelac.” I stumbled through the backwards spelling of the word, but that silly challenge cemented the a-r in my brain.
4. Fifth grade, pronunciation. Mrs. Comer was reading out loud to our class as we followed along in our readers. Sometimes she read, sometimes she would call on individual students to read out loud. When Mrs. Comer got to the word “depot,” she pronounced it “dee-poh.” I realized at that moment that my mental pronunciation (”dee-pot”) was incorrect. I was thrilled that I hadn’t been the one reading out loud that time.
5. Seventh grade, vocabulary. We were studying science fiction in our English class. Each student got to choose one of four novels to read (then discuss with the other students who had also chosen that book). I chose the book with the most interesting title: Interstellar Pig. The vague memory I have of the story is that at some point, (I think) one of the characters turned into a lichen. None of the kids in my group knew what a lichen was, and it was near impossible to figure it out from context clues. When we looked it up and applied the definition to the book, we were all like, “…Mm-hmm…”

Do any of you have specific memories of learning? (They don’t have to be English-language-specific, if you remember something like math more clearly.)

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