Matthew Davis grew up as a missionary kid in Honduras, he was homeschooled by his mom for a while but when he was about 12 she gave birth to twins and couldn't handle taking care of them while homeschooling Matthew and his brothers, Pat and Ricky. "I remember she sat down with me at the table in our little house, she had on a blue dress and was sweating. We sweated all the time. She said to me,' Matty, I am just plum worn out, don't hold it against me, I love you' . With that I went to school" He attended the an American school in a little neighboring village, one mile from where his family lived, and his dad worked in a little medical practice. He remember walking to school, his mom would always make sure that he had his shoes on when he left the house, but he took them off as soon as he passed the big flower bush. He hated the American school. There were 7 kids, 2 were his own sibilngs. There were several boys that constantly gave matthew's brother a hard time. Matthew was continually having to protect and watch over his brother. This put incredible pressure on Matthew. He dreaded going to school and remember skipping numerous days,escaping from the responsability of protecting Pat. Sometimes he felt a little guilty about not going to school. On the days that he skipped he would just explore around the village or make tree-forts. His teacher, Miss. Scott, was very laid back, he remembered her being a young volunteer that just graduated from school.. He never knew why she was there. It was obvious that she didn't like it. She would sigh, and would constantly complain about her bug bites. He never saw any of her bug bites. She left after a couple months and was replaced by a older man, Mr Smitley. He was more strict, but cared for the kids, and challenged them to think. With more discipline the bullies were no longer an issue. Matthew was more motivated to learn. He liked coming into class knowing that the teacher had high expectations.
Cheryl Elstag born in New Jersey. Her father was in the air force so her family moved constantly. She was in a different school every year until she was 10. Due to some serious problems in their marriage, Cheryl's mother left her father. She took Cheryl and her little brother and they moved to Roanoke, VA. Cheryl's remember the first year in Roanoke being hard. Every morning she woke up and asked her mom if they were moving. Every morning her mother would tell her, "Honey, my feet are glued right here to this floor, I am not moving anywhere" Of course her feet weren't really glued, but her mom was determind to not uproot her kids, so they didn't move. Cheryl spent the rest of her school career right in that little VA town. In the 7th grade cheryl remembered having a typing teacher that would walk around inspecting his students typing form. If he happened to see any misuse of the typewriter the offender has to kiss the typewriter and walk around the room four times reciting the 5 proper techniques of typwriting. Cheryl remembered once that a boy stumbled while walking to his desk, fell, and toppled one of the machines to the floor. The teacher inforced the same discipline, but when the boy leaned in for the kiss his lip got stuck on in the typwriter. Cheryl recollects," I can remember squealing, blood and teachers flocking from all over the school. The fire truck came and a firefighter had to disassemble the typewriter, I don't know why that was his job, it didn't have anything to do with fire." As she reflected on that experience she realized that she had developed fear of of teachers. Maybe it was just a little one, but from then on she rarely spoke up in the classroom, never gave her opinion about a topic, and she was always afraid that she didn't accomplish the assignment correctly. It wasn't until she moved on to college that she developed some confidence.
Robbin Ervin was a petite little girl. Her mother was a teacher at the elementary school that she attended. Having a mom as a teacher procured her a special place in the refrigerator of the teacher's lounge. She remembered clicking down the linoleum hall to the lounge to get her cold glass bottle of grape juice feeling so special and important. She moved from classrooms year to year, interested in her subjects but insecure. Perhaps this insecurity could be attributed to her home life, or her classroom but, no matter the source of the issue,the reality was, she felt the drive to succeed in school, simply to please the teachers. Teacher's pet, that is what she strived to be all during elementary and middle school. The classroom was a strictly disciplined place that relied heavily on memorization. . In 9th grade, she remembered going to the library with her group of friends, and making fun of the librarian. He was a quirky man that none of the kids liked, and constantly made fun of. One day he had enough. Furious, he called out four children from the group, including Robbin. He told them: I have had quite enough of this disrespective reticule, You all deserve a good spanking, so I am going to give you one." She remembered that she didn't believe that he would actually carry through with it, but he did. She was spanked in the 9th grade.
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