I was a little kid a product of the 1950’s. I was born August 16,1953. So on August 16, 1959 I turned six years old. And by the end of the decade I was six and a half and half way through first grade.
I went to elementary school in the Island Trees school district and the elementary school was called Michael F Stokes elementary school. My home address was officially in Bethpage and they had their own school district but I still was in the Island Trees school district.
It was a very middle class working class area. Elementary school was pretty normal and relatively uneventful. I did K through 6th grade at Stokes and I do believe I received a good proper elementary education.
I was not a great student. And never did well in math or science or English for that matter. But I loved social studies and history. I excelled in that area. Back in those days my inability to comprehend math and science was put down to laziness. And I am sure there was a degree of that in me. But for whatever reason those subjects never and until this day still don’t made sense to me. I just could not find the logic or reasoning in the math and sciences. By today’s definition it just didn’t compute.
Today it might be explained as ADD or dyslexia. And it seemed to get worse as I advanced in school. How I made it through college with a BA in History from Boston University and teachers certification is still a mystery for me.
As for graduating law school at Northern Illinois University and passing the Bar, well that is so shocking that I still have nightmares that I didn’t graduate law school and I took the bar exam under false pretenses. Seriously, I wake up in cold sweats that my life as a lawyer is a sham.
And I think it all stems from my poor elementary School performances and all my teachers telling my parents that I was a very smart little boy, just very lazy. He’s just not trying. And I always thought I was trying, it just wasn’t “computing”.
But overall my first decade with the exception of my eye troubles was pretty uneventful. The 60’s were another story. I will save those reflections for another night.
