« Cause & Effect | Main | Deunion »

Around the World

When I was small, I skipped a grade. Did first grade in the fall, second grade in the spring, and then pushed on to third with my new cohort. But they didn't just move me up straightaway. My first accelerated subject, true to my robot self, was math. I remember taking addition and subtraction quizzes in first grade, where we weren't allowed to begin until everyone had their quiz. I sat in the front, and as everyone was getting their quizzes, I could do the first 15-20 problems in my head, remember the answers, and at "Go," would simply fill in the first column or so of problems.

Anyhow, it didn't take long before they sent me upstream. And in my second grade classroom, they played a game called "Around the World." We were already seated in a circle, and one person would leave hir seat, and stand behind the next person. The two of them got a flashcard math problem, and the first person to answer it advanced, while the other person took that seat. The name comes from the prize that a body won if s/he managed to go all the way around the circle without "losing." Needless to say, this was a game that appealed greatly to me.