You know how when someone makes a reference that everyone around you seems to get but you're left fake laughing because you weren't required to read 'Lord of the Flies' like everyone else on the planet? Does this ever happen to you? I feel like a fairly literate, competent person when it comes to most things but when certain topics come up, I curse my elementary school education.
What I never learned:
-State capitals
-Parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Seriously, I didn't learn this stuff until I started Spanish in 9th grade - it was quite the crash course
-Never read: Lord of the Flies, Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea, and more. Granted, as an adult I am now catching up on these books that I feel I "missed out on". (Luckily, I had some amazing English teachers who intriduced me to plenty of other good reads)
-The trick to determining how many days are in the months....something with the knuckles on your hands?
-The difference between affect and effect
-Apparently you don't do 2 spaces after a period when starting a new sentence. I honestly learned that late last year. Wonderful.
There's got to be more that aren't coming to mind. I think I turned out okay, just don't ask me about Jane Eyre!
5 comments:
bahaha i love this post. ditto to the affect/effect thing. i constantly feel like this around doug and anne. i brush it off as an age difference but i am pretty sure its an iq difference.
Ok. You must read The Old Man and the Sea if only for the love of Hemingway. I am reading The Great Gatsby right now! Join me?
I never learned parts of speech either. Congratulations public school.
For how many days I learned fingertips and spaces. Put 8 fingers together, each hand in 4 hand shape. Start with the pinkie of the left hand and say January, the Feb, then March, etc. Every time you hit a "peak" there are 31 days, every time there is a "valley" there are less than 31. July and August are both peaks.
That's all I have for you. Whew! I'm tired.
But really, should we read "The Great Gatsby" together?
you must read jane eyre! i loved it...i read it on my own in high school. i think you will love it too...in fact i think maybe i should reread it. after i finish tina fey!
The knuckled trick is seriously the best! Use it anytime I need to know the 30/31 thing!
And the only of those books I've read is "Jane Eyre" and it was for pleasure, not required reading, so I'm right there with ya on the missed-out-on books!
Parts of speech FTW! I blew the minds of last semester's students when we discussed/learned/had this on an exam. Next stop: diagramming sentences.
Never seen Lord of the Rings. Ever. I tried reading Tolkein, and just when it st....zzzzz.
You have to read Grapes of Wrath. Hint: it's short.
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