Fourth Grade

I remember being in 4th grade and not knowing the difference between right and left.

I had a very mean, strict Spanish teacher in 4th grade that had anger management issues. He would constantly get mad (I don’t blame him), but he would get too mad (I blame him). One time he got really angry because a student didn’t know the difference between right and left, so he quizzed the whole class and asked us to raise our left hand when he said left and right hand when he said right. I didn’t know the difference between right and left either, so I copied what everyone else was doing.

At the time I didn’t think knowing the difference between right and left was necessary because I was still a little kid, but after that incident, I thought that I should learn. I don’t remember how but I eventually learned that your left pointer and thumb make an ‘L’ when you stick them out, and that’s how I learned the difference between the two.

Eight years later and every time I have to know the difference between left and right, I mentally stick my pointer and thumb out to remember.

#elementaryschool