Trouble in School: part 7

If you’ve read the others in this series, you will know what I am not repeating in this block. But the space is part of the page design, so I’m self-obligated to fill it with something even if it is just jabber.

Remember my writing, ¹Hope you recognize ‘writing’ is a gerund and requires the possessive ‘my’ instead of me. “Can’t read this, Benson, do it over.” Along with the “F” it, or something like it, was often scribbled, yes scribbled, at the top of many of my papers by Mr. Doitover my freshman English teacher. He and Miss Doitover, to be mentioned later, were not related.

Would you believe I disconnected my brain from my mouth again? My nearly nonagenarian memory does not tell me if it was on purpose, or just a bad habit of my youth.²There is some evidence it didn’t totally stop then.

Mr. Doitover had us read a Shakespeare piece and write what we thought he, Shakespeare, meant by what he wrote.

I don’t remember what the piece was or what I wrote in response to the teacher’s instructions. I didn’t get the ‘can’t read’ note but I did get the “F” with a note something like, “That is nowhere close to what he meant, and you may do it over for a passing grade.”
You can probably guess which option I took.

I got stupidly bold and said something like, “Mr. Doitover, you said we should write what we thought the author said. I did what you told us to do. Do you know what Shakespeare meant because you met him in person and asked him what he meant?”

Yup! I had the first of several official visits with Mr. H.S. Prin. I already knew him from delivering his morning newspaper when I was in junior high.

I also knew Mrs. H.S. Prin who was one of my JH teachers. That’s a story too – probably next.