Andrew Linington

In first grade I greatly frustrated my teacher. My favorite pass time during class was talking to Andrew Linington. I have absolutely no memory of what we talked about, but I clearly remember sitting and talking to the boy with the freckled face and buzzed haircut. We talked so incessantly that our brand new teacher had no idea how to deal with the problem. In a poor attempt to quiet us, she moved each of us to a different class for math. Andrew was sent to a class that was a little more advanced, I was sent to a class that was a little more remedial despite my ability to keep up with the other kids. This gave our teacher a one hour break from our chatting each day.

Ben is in first grade. And my boy seems to clearly take after his momma. Almost daily he has come home with tales of having to "pull a green card" because he has been talking in class. While I don't think Ben has a favorite chatting partner, I think he just has a huge problem trying to keep his mouth from moving during class. I know he wants to, I know he is frustrated that he is missing out on rewards that can be earned in class for not "pulling a green card."

I find it impossible to get upset with Ben for these infractions, since I was guilty of the exact same thing. I turned out to be a good student and more importantly a good person... I'm not too worried about his pulled cards.