There has been a lot of discussion lately about early childhood education programs, and I want you to know that my friend and I were in on the instructional ground floor decades earlier. The problem was, we didn't know it.
Let me explain.
Back in the good old days (don't you just love that phrase?), there was no kindergarten program. You either started Grade 1 early or late. Those were the options. There were also no school buses for the townies. We walked, no matter how far we lived from educational facilities.
Point three. Older kids looked out for the youngsters ... the beginners. Unwritten, but very firm rule.
So my friend Rudy and I found ourselves walking home after a tough Grade 6 and Grade 5 school day in September, and encountered little Greg who was also toddling along, having completed one of his first full days in Grade 1.
"How was it?" Rudy asked.
"I learned those ABC's, they're tough," Greg replied, shaking his head.
We urged him on and he agreed to practise his alphabet on us as we sauntered homeward ... all of us living within a two block area of one another.
So he recited and we listened, injecting the corrections when he stumbled around the L-M-N-O-P range in that little sing-song rhyme we all learn when it comes to alphabet memorization. There is no app for that, you have to learn your ABC's the hard way.
A few days later, similar scenario.
"I learned numbers today," Greg reported.
"Great, let's hear 'em," I urged, rolling my eyes, but noting his eager anticipation of being able to show off his newly discovered skills.
"Sick, two, free," he said with his lisp.
"Nope, I replied, six comes after three even. Try one, two, three and ..."
"Oh ya, I forgot, "one, two, free, four, five, sick ..."
"Ooops, that's six Greg, not sick."
"OK, sick, uh six, seven, eight ... and I know there's an eleventy in there somewhere soon," he stated.
"Eleventy?"
"Isn't there an eleventy?"
"Nope afraid not," I replied.
"Well, there should be."
"We have some more work to do here," Rudy suggested.
So the remedial math session continued. Greg quickly got over the devastation of learning that there was no such thing as an eleventy in any mathematical computations he was going to encounter in the first 12 years of his educational experiences, and we moved on. He had his numbers down pat, up to 20 by the time we left him to trudge on the final half block to his own home.
So here we are, decades later. Rudy and I encounter one another about once every four or five years and as good friendships go, you can slide right into casual conversations immediately without any stilted re-introductions. At some point in our reunion, one of us will probably utter the phrase "sick, two, free," and the other one will chuckle while those around us give a quizzical look.
The reply will inevitably be "eleventy." And then we will resume whatever it is we're doing. Recalling the week or two when we served as surrogate, unpaid remedial English and mathematic consultants with a 100 per cent success rate, brings a smile. We trust Greg was grateful for the assistance. I often wonder where he ended up.
Maybe he's teaching calculus and mathematical theory classes in the value of "eleventy" at some heavy duty university. But probably not.
If you can count to 20 and want to show off your skills, Park may be contacted at normpark@estevanmercury.ca
