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| Hermione with her hand up |
Abigail and Dolley readers patience is not something I was born with.... In the First Grade, my teacher sent home a note that read, "Dolley needs to learn patience with others." This impatience is not accompanied by anger or malice but born of the fact that I am a quick study. All of my teachers, after Mrs. Bowman, will attest to the fact that I can be an exasperating student, I ask questions well before the teacher has reached that point in the lesson. Usually three steps ahead of the instruction and impatient to grasp the full concept and move on, I get bored waiting for others to catch up.
It has been many years since I was in a classroom but recently spent three weeks in intensive training. To my surprise, I had more patience with others but was still three steps ahead of the teacher and still asked all the questions needed to fully understand the material. I don't memorize, I learn and in that process probe and prod more information than a lesson plan calls for. Alas, I'm not terribly popular with teachers.
I have to restrain myself from answering all of the questions that the teacher asks. I try to be quiet and will always gauge my fellow students to insure that I have not become grating. The majority of the time, my fellow students don't mind and some are even thankful for my questions. I am sure others wish I would just be quiet. A kindred spirit in the class is always a relief and I am more than willing to sit back and let them ask all the questions.
As I sat in my classroom recently, a scene from Harry Potter kept flashing through my mind and I endeavored to do my best, not to be Herminone. I'm am relatively certain that I did not succeed in that regard but equally certain five years from now I will still remember the material. In the weeks ahead, I hope MY students will appreciate the time, effort, and work I put into learning the material even if my teachers would have rather me sat quietly.
