My Teachers: Ms. Cummings

When I think of Kindergarten, two things immediately come to mind:

 

1)  Nathan Cathy drawing all over my doll’s head.

2)  The fact that we didn’t get a book for every letter in the alphabet.

 

I remember a lot of other things from Kindergarten as well. I remember learning about St. Patrick’s Day. (I got pinched a lot that day…and thought it quite unfair because no one told me I was supposed to wear green.) I remember all the Disney songs we learned for our class play when we dressed as Mousketeers. I remember how proud I was to loose my first tooth. And I remember my first friend: Katie Lovett (now Hill – we still exchange Christmas cards!)

 

I attended Marshall County Elementary School in Lewisburg, TN. My teacher was Ms. Cummings. She seemed really old…and yet she wasn’t because I knew some of the other Kindergarten teachers were even older than her. Of course, in the eyes of a 5-year-old they were all practically ancient. She was always dressed very professionally: skirt, blouse, blazer, scarf, heels. I honestly cannot remember her ever wearing something more casual. I thought of her as a good teacher, but not really a fun one. Perhaps because we didn’t hatch eggs in an incubator (Mrs. Love’s class did that). Nor did we have tadpoles (I can’t remember whose class did that). We also didn’t get to wear crowns and a birthday sash on our birthday. (Mrs. Busler’s class did that, and my lucky sister Katey had her as a teacher three years later.) As a kid, I wanted a more fun teacher. As an adult, I get it. Incubators and tadpoles are a lot of work. And birthday crowns and sashes are unfair to kids who have summer birthdays.

 

As a teacher, Ms. Cummings fulfilled her responsibilities. Her class was in good ordered and I learned. I can’t remember precisely what I learned, but I remember writing on tablet paper as carefully as I could. I remember coloring shapes with my huge crayons. And I remember learning the alphabet. Well, I should say I remember what I didn’t learn about the alphabet. First of all, we didn’t learn it in order. Which really annoyed me. I know there is a science behind the order children are taught the alphabet, but it really bugged me in Kindergarten that we didn’t learn the alphabet A to Z. We got a little 6 x 6 pamphlet for each letter. I don’t remember what was in each, but probably a page to trace the letter, and pictures of words that start with that letter. I just remember that we didn’t get all of them. In order to “collect” all 26, you had to be held back and go to the “special Kindergarten” class the next year. Obviously, no one wanted to be in that class and yet I did want all the books. What was the use of having a set of books if you were lacking several? Especially when one of the ones lacking was the letter “M” which is a rather important letter when your name is Melissa Michele Sturm. Yes, I was OCD even in Kindergarten.

 

In conclusion, Ms. Cummings was a good teacher to start an education with. If anything, she didn’t fail to prepare me for first grade which is high praise when my first grade teacher would be Mrs. Steely.

 

Me in Kindergarten.