Thread: How you see yourself at the age of 5... Board: Heaven / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Earlier on, I half-caught an advert for a programme about the 'Secret Lives of Five Year Olds'. For those not in the UK, there are a whole load of these types of programmes, following whatever the subject is - I've never really watched any, so can't say in any detail.

Anyway, today is the 100th anniversary of the partial emancipation of women in the UK and the ending of the property qualification for men and the programme this evening seems to reflect that.

This is all a long introduction to saying that the part of the advert I caught was the presenter saying something along the lines of how you see yourself at five having a big effect on your life subsequently.

I find this slightly worrying, as at five, I usually saw myself as Dick Turpin, although sometimes as a 'lady who works in a shoe shop'.

I don't know if this has had any effect on my subsequent life: I have never gone in for highway robbery nor ridden from London to York. Nor, indeed, stolen any shoes.

I am a lawyer, though, if anyone wants to make cheap jokes at my expense.

I wonder if anyone else's view of themselves at the age of five has or has not, had an effect on their subsequent life?

M.
 
Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
Misunderstood genius. No, nowt's changed.
 
Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It was around that age that someone gave me a book, "The Make-It Book," full of simple craft projects for the very young, paper airplanes and such. I realized then that I was a maker.
 
Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 
When I was 5? I don't remember having any self-awareness at all. There was a bunch of stuff I did, but I was very much living in the moment, and at the whims of my parents.

If you had asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up (and I don't remember that happening at school), I'd have assumed that I'd wear a suit and go to work like my Dad and the Dads of most of my friends.

I couldn't have told you anything about what my Dad actually did, except that he once brought a computer home from work (a Commodore PET) so that he could catch up on work at home at a busy time, and he let me play space invaders on it.
 
Posted by Puzzler (# 18908) on :
 
When I was five, or a bit more, if asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I used to say ” I am going to stay at home and help my mum”.
So much for female emancipation!
I am glad to report that I have left home at 18 to go to university, had a decent career and am now staying at home
( though mum is no longer with us).
 
Posted by Caissa (# 16710) on :
 
At that age my maternal grandparents gave me the book, 365 Things to Know. The learning continues 50 years later.
 
Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
I also had books with creative activities, as well as other books. And the town Library was an easy walk. I loved it!

I think I changed my "what do you want to be when you grow up?" choices constantly. I do remember asking my mother if I could do more than one thing, and she said yes. So I announced that I wanted to be an acrobat, a cowgirl, and a farmer's wife. (I guess I'd never heard of a woman farmer.)

That has changed many times over the years -- I'm too klutzy to be an acrobat, I did enjoy horseback riding (but "English" style, not "Western"), and I can barely keep a tomato plant alive.

I do give my mother credit for never discouraging me from any of my sometimes crazy ideas. She finished school during World War II, when many jobs were open to women that hadn't been before. She always encouraged my sister and me to follow our own paths.
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
I saw myself sweeping. Lots of sweeping with a corn broom. Usually while wearing a blue blouse with a big collar and a yellow skirt. My life would no doubt have moments of danger involving witches with poison apples but nothing I couldn't handle. Mostly I would be sweeping and hanging little clothes on the line with help from birds.
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
At 5, one of the things I saw myself as was "A's friend." 48 years on we're still friends. Having a 48-years-and-counting friendship has definitely had an effect on my life. [Smile]
 
Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :
 
At the age of five I wanted to be a blacksmith and a farrier. Unfortunately I did well at school so I couldn't take up the apprenticeship I wanted. I still dream of packing it all in and belting lumps of iron though, I have made gates and candle sconces on a friend's forge and it is so satisfying.
 
Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :
 
I can't remember when I was 5. I have wanted to be a teacher (which I sort of have been, just not in the same way) and a scientist (which I guess I am?), and all sorts of others things most of which I was not very capable of.

FInally I found something I was capable of, and have done that. But I only found that at the age of 16.
 
Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :
 
I think that I was around five when I wanted to be either a scientist or a dancer or both. I discovered library work in college and haven't looked back.
 
Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
I am now 60 years beyond the age of 5, and retired -- I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (but not an acrobat, cowgirl, or farmer's wife).

I do regret that I've had lots of jobs over the years, but never a career or a vocation.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I saw very little when I was 5, as my cataracts hadn't been diagnosed ... [Big Grin]

Seriously, I have very little recollection of how I perceived myself 50 years ago - I remember wanting to be either a nurse or a school-teacher (didn't every little girl?) but probably not at that early an age.

eta: at age six, I was taken to see the local grammar school's production of H.M.S. Pinafore, and I knew that I wanted to be Josephine. [Big Grin]

[ 06. February 2018, 21:19: Message edited by: Piglet ]
 
Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I do remember assuring the nun who taught us in first grade that I longed to take holy orders. Sister Catherine knew not to believe me. The making thing however is my true nature. I think I can safely say that I have made something every week of my life, often every day, even if it is as simple as dinner from scratch.
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
The thing I remember is lying looking at my spread hand and thinking I had five fingers and also I was five years old and realising there was a thing - fiveness - which transcended any specific instance.

It was also about that age the man who drove the mobile shop round Clogher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I lifted my little flower-like face and said ‘Rich’.
 
Posted by Ohher (# 18607) on :
 
At age 5 I saw myself as horrifically deprived, as all my friends went off to kindergarten while I was kept at home. I spent my days with my grandmother, as both parents worked full time. Grammy kept me busy with sewing cards and cutting pictures out of magazines.

I'd been born some 10-12 weeks early, and the doc told my parents to institutionalize me, but my father refused to consider this.

My mother, convinced I was hopelessly slow, had little use for me. My father, by contrast, was determined to somehow make me "normal." He spent mornings while shaving teaching me to count by ones, twos, and fives; making me recite the alphabet, etc. etc. At five, I was sure I was smart when with my dad, and equally sure I was a useless lump when with my mother.

Guess you could color me "confused."
 
Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
My mom has always said that she knew to trust my refusal skills at an early age, as it was impossible to make me do something I didn't want to do. A few examples, from round about 5:

My mom signed me up for a tumbling class, which I apparently didn't enjoy. So when it came time to take me to the second session, I hid under a table, clinging to a leg, refusing to go.

In our church music class, we learned a song (which I hated) to sing for the congregation one Sunday. That Sunday, I stood in front of the church with my fingers in my ears and tongue sticking out rather than sing.

In kindergarten, I somehow randomly was assigned the job of holding the door for the rest of the class during any fire alarm. I didn't like the loud noise (I'm still pretty sensitive to loud noise), so I refused to do the job. The teacher was a little annoyed, I'm sure, but agreed to give the job to someone else.

And yes, to this day I have a pretty strongly developed sense of what I'm comfortable doing and not comfortable doing, and while I have learned to be a little more open minded in certain areas, when I decide that I don't want to do something, no amount of pleading or pressuring will change my position.

[ 06. February 2018, 23:18: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
When I was five, I sang my first public solo, and enjoyed it. I was also interested in my books, and in telling stories, and in my mother's intelligent and cuddlesome cat. None of that has changed.
 
Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Piglet asks, don't all little girls want to be a nurse or a teacher? I can categorically say that there was never a time I wanted to be either.

M.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I remember hearing Kathleen Ferrier on the radio, and thinking that this was for me. As it indeed became.

[ 07. February 2018, 06:40: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
At age five we were living on a remote forest reserve in Zimbabwe. I was starting Correspondence Schooling with lessons over the air when we could get radio reception. My sister and I knew all the rhymes in Mother Goose by heart and most of the poems in Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verse. I loved Shona folktales and rhyming songs. We had an encyclopedia collection of myths and legends from Classical Greece and Rome I read over and over again, Grimm’s fairytales, shelves of books I was told to leave alone until I was older. Nobody noticed I couldn’t do basic arithmetic.

I liked drawing pictures of horses, polar bears and ancient galley ships escorted across the sea by dolphins. I was a daydreamer and storyteller who liked to be left alone with books to amuse myself. Each week the rations truck would come out and there would be comics for us: Beano, June & Schoolfriend, Dennis the Menace. I copied the cartoons and taught myself how to do sound-bubbles. Illustrated books about insects, birds and plants enthralled me. I wanted to become a ballet dancer, a champion race-horse rider, to be shipwrecked on a South Seas island and to go back in history to be crowned a medieval Scottish queen.

My mother, who had grown up educated by both German Dominican nuns and Seventh Day Adventists, bought the entire set of Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories for us children to read so that God would make us good. They were terrifying and I had nightmares about them for years. (There’s a support forum online for people scarred by Uncle Arthur, and other forums for children who adored the stories.)
 
Posted by Morgan (# 15372) on :
 
I adored school and wanted to be a teacher. I had cried buckets the year before when my brother started school but I was told that I was too young.

I have been a teacher for 40 years and have spent much of that time studying as well. I am now retired but continue to study a variety of things that interest me and to preach and teach small groups.

I think my 5 year old self would be pleased.
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
At five I was just about to start school (in the baby-boom era one started school in the term after one's fifth birthday). I was aware that my dad worked on exciting stuff like aircraft and rockets and he had periodic trips to "The States" to learn more about said missiles and bring all kinds of goodies back, but blissfully unaware that had the balloon gone up we were a prime target and would have been turned to glass pronto. I certainly didn't know that the Cuba Missile Crisis was just after my fifth birthday.

btw, I wanted to go to sea like my uncle.
 
Posted by RdrEmCofE (# 17511) on :
 
At about 5 years old I excitedly informed my mother that I had the ambition to be the driver of the lorry which sucked out the drains in the road in which our bungalow was sited. Not merely the assistant who operated the sucking equipment, but the driver who appeared to supervise the operation.

I am pleased to say my career trajectory actually far surpassed my naive 5 year old ambition. This has resulted at age 72 in a reasonably satisfied sense of achievement. [Smile]

[ 07. February 2018, 10:42: Message edited by: RdrEmCofE ]
 
Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :
 
When I was a bit younger than five I wanted to be a boy when I grew up, and was unimpressed when I was told I didn't have the right equipment. By the time I was five I was pretty set on becoming a librarian, which is what I did and had forty odd happy years doing too.
I never fancied teaching. A couple of weeks into my school career I remember getting to Friday afternoon and feeling awful. I thought I've got years of this to come and I don't like it. Turns out I was sickening for measles.
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
At age 5 I wanted to ride my bicycle really fast. I named it Speedy.

I also didn't want to eat vegetables. I learned to take the beans I had put in my pockets at supper before they went in the laundry. Having a younger brother meant I learned to lie that it was him. I have thought since that the that of violence is a root cause of dishonesty.

[ 07. February 2018, 12:31: Message edited by: no prophet's flag is set so... ]
 
Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :
 
I have a vague memory of watching the Apollo XI launch. Of course I didn't know that it was Apollo XI at the time, but I had the drawings of rockets to prove that I saw it. I was probably 4, but I have a very clear memory of being mesmerised by the ants crawling over tight buds of the peonies in the garden of the Italian women who looked after me during the day. She would read me stories about explorers (Columbus, da Gama, Tasman, etc.). She also put me to work in kitchen, grating parmigiano or stale bread. I had no friends (does one at 5?) and my sister is 10 years older. To this day I have an omnivorous curiosity, love science, studied history, travel whenever I can, love cooking, and while quite social prefer my own company. I quite enjoyed being 5.
 
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
At the age of five, my self identification was 'musician', which I knew from my first memories. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I figured out that I would have to have a job *sigh* to support my musician-ness, since I had no idea that one could make money playing music. Therefore, I thought I should be a cowgirl or astronaut. What? Females couldn't be astronauts then? That was so not fair.

Anyway, musician I am, in spite of being retired, and having to work many odd jobs to keep body and soul together. My five year old self was correct.
 
Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
At five I wanted to read lots of books and own a horse. One out of two is not bad.

I also wanted to be an only child but I already had a little brother
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
I had habit of reciting "Now we are Six" when I was younger than 6. I developed the idea if I said it long and hard enough, sort like a petitionary prayer that I would remain 6 forever. One of the great disappointments of my childhood.Link to AA Milne's "Now We Are Six" poem.

The other was searching all the cupboards, closets and wardrobes for ways into Narnia. I dreamed of successfully getting in, and then woke up in my excitement to disappointing breakfasts of not so soft boiled eggs. Mr. Tumnus saying perhaps he'd feed Lucy sardines got me onto to this as a breakfast habit. On toast of course, with tea.
 
Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Kitten:
At five I wanted to read lots of books and own a horse. One out of two is not bad.
I wanted a horse and a piano, but my mother explained that we didn't have the money or room for either. I did take both piano and horseback riding lessons in later years, but never owned either.

But I did read lots of books!
 
Posted by ACK (# 16756) on :
 
I don't know about age 5, but at 6 I worked out a quicker way of adding 2 numbers together than the one I had been taught. I used my method, because I knew it was right, but hid what I was doing, scared I would get into trouble.

Love of maths and fear of getting into trouble are still with me.

I was relatively slow at grasping reading and apparently I found this very frustrating. It clicked at about 7 and I have spent much of my time since then with a nose in a book.
 
Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :
 
Odd shy awkward slightly dumpy kid who was not too sure how she fitted in. Already pretty self contained, a tendency to withdraw and day dream. A tendency to look for people I could take care of rather than look for friends.

Not a reader until I was eight but fair to middling at reading as far as I can recall. I played with cars more reading than soft toys but had an extensive collection of dolls. I could be stubborn, I think I was five when I decided I wanted to skip like the rest of the girls so evening after evening after school I would practice until I could.


Jengie
 
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
It was always about books for me. When I was five, I still had no idea that real living people wrote books, so my ideal job for the future was to be a librarian.
I did work in a library for a while, but never got the qualifications, being deflected onto another path by my passion for archaeology when I was eleven.
Now I work in one of the biggest bookshops in the Town of Books, so I'm surrounded by books all the time!
 
Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
When I was five, enjoying a steady diet of “ Daktari,” “ Tarzan” and “ Jungle Cowboy,” I wanted to be a naturalist ...either that or Queen of the Animals. I now have a dog and a cat, so part of my dream came true.
 
Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on :
 
I began school the day before my 5th birthday. As both my parents were teachers, I had worked out that the only reason kids were sent to school was so that they could be teachers so that there could be schools so that there could be teachers, In a pointless circle. Maybe not so far wrong!

My 5 year-old self was taught to read using the ITA (Initial Training Alphabet, I think). Does any one else remember that phonetic system? The enduring result is that now I love spell-check!
 
Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I didn't decide on career paths (writer and teacher, both of which I stuck with) till I was 8 or 9. The most striking thing I remember about how I saw myself at age 5 (and even earlier, and onwards from that for several years) is that whenever I visualized my adult self, I imagined my self with long, perfectly straight dark-blond hair that hung in a glorious shimmering curtain to my waist, complete with long full bangs. I was 5 in 1970 and my ideal of adult womanly beauty definitely had a hippie vibe. I assumed my adult self would look exactly like this.

I must have been 10 or even older before I started catching myself in these mental visions and reminding myself that as I didn't THEN have blond hair that grew long, straight, and lustrous, I was highly unlikely to develop it as an adult. And indeed, I did not. I could have coloured it blond I suppose, but it's always been the kind of hair that turns to split ends once it gets to about shoulder length so I never tried the experiment of growing it down to my waist. I still have some nostalgia for my childhood vision of Adult Me, though. Perhaps she's my true inner self.

[ 07. February 2018, 20:23: Message edited by: Trudy Scrumptious ]
 
Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Thrilled at 5 to learn to read. I was sure I would grow up to own a book store so I could read whenever and whatever I wanted. Never did have any bookish career, but I still enjoy reading, and the smell and the feel of books in my hand. On the other hand had a hard time learning numbers and hated all forms of math for the rest of my school years. Thank goodness for calculators. I do the family income tax though, and do keep my check book more or less current, sometimes.
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
As an organist - sorry, very boring I know.

Or the driver of a traction engine.
 
Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :
 
This thread has had the unexpected effect of making me uncharacteristically emotional today. Very unlike me.

MaryLouise mentioned A Child's Garden of Verses. At one point (I was 7, I think), I had a terrible cold/'flu', and was home from school for a full week. My sister read to me from our three-generation old copy of that. I still remember things like The Land of Counterpane (I spent my days doing much that), Foreign Children, My Bed is a Boat....
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
As an organist - sorry, very boring I know. ...
Oh, not to me. I love hanging out with organ nerds.
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I remember hearing Kathleen Ferrier on the radio, and thinking that this was for me. As it indeed became.
Oh my gosh can you sing like that just because you set your mind to it? Well maybe Og could. I'd have a better chance of growing up to be Snow White!

I clicked on your link and thought, "I've heard that voice somewhere before," and then it came to me that it was the same voice as the singer of the title song in the film, "I Know Where I'm Going." It's probably very familiar to some people but I saw it (and heard her) for the first time on Turner Classic Movies just last year.
song
 
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Rossweisse:
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
As an organist - sorry, very boring I know. ...
Oh, not to me. I love hanging out with organ nerds.
For which I am grateful! [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Rossweisse:
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
As an organist - sorry, very boring I know. ...
Oh, not to me. I love hanging out with organ nerds.
I'm saying nothing ... [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
I just wish I were sufficiently coordinated to be an organist.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I remember hearing Kathleen Ferrier on the radio, and thinking that this was for me. As it indeed became.
Oh my gosh can you sing like that just because you set your mind to it?
No, it was luck. Not that I was ever a Ferrier sound-alike, but I was given a singing voice.

[ 08. February 2018, 13:00: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
posted by Rossweisse
quote:
originally postedby L'organist:
As an organist - sorry, very boring I know. ...
quote:
Oh, not to me. I love hanging out with organ nerds.
I said as an organist - I am NOT a nerd.

[ 08. February 2018, 14:57: Message edited by: L'organist ]
 
Posted by Ferijen (# 4719) on :
 
At 5, I wasn't very happy at school which I think had impacts on my self confidence which lasted a very long time, and I wanted to be a nurse, which would have been A Very Bad Idea.

I have a real live five year old at home who wants to be a zebra-looker-afterer when he grows up (he'll look after giraffes and lions too, if he needs to), but that's AFTER he's done 'fast canoeing' (slalem) in the Olympics. These ambitions have been fairly steady for about 18 months now.
 
Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Cathscats:
My 5 year-old self was taught to read using the ITA (Initial Training Alphabet, I think). Does any one else remember that phonetic system? The enduring result is that now I love spell-check!
Snap!

And my school did not check that I was called by my proper first name. My family always used a nickname. So you can imagine what happened when they handed out our names of bits of paper.

Jengie
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Skinny little legs, baggy shorts, looking a bit like Linus (in Schultz' Peanuts cartoons), and standing on the footbridge, near Our House, crossing over the Tonbridge to Hastings main line - still all-steam in those wonderful days!

O, and knowing that my red-and-cream Dinky Toys double-deck bus was the same colour as those running in Brighton (where Auntie Ethel and Uncle Tom lived).

IJ
 
Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on :
 
I'm not sure of the exact age, but in infant school (so aged between 5 and 7) I remember wanting to be a minister. After a few years I realised they were all male (at least in the Baptist congregations near us, and the Anglican churches my aunts went to) so dropped the idea. I can still remember my first attempt at making up a sermon!
I also wanted to be a farmer's wife, thanks to Enid Blyton. I thought you mainly had to be nice to animals and hunt for hens' eggs.
I decided I would probably not want to be a teacher as I was already frustrated that the other children in my class couldn't explain anything and were very slow learning to read. Also the girls were incredibly girly and talked in a "cute" way that was so alien I tended to avoid them. I got on better with some of the boys and didn't really make friends with other girls till I was about 8.
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
My husband, whose name is Stephen, was called David for his entire kindergarten year.
 
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
I don't remember my 5th birthday at all, as I hadn't even started school by then. The Demon Headmistress (for so she was) deemed that all children in our village should start school ON their 5th birthday. I had a few days' grace, as mine fell in the holidays. I think my world started and ended at the top of the garden.

Am still a stay-at-home type of person. I have been abroad, but they have funny money and drive on the wrong side of the road, and talk funny. Best to keep in my comfort zone...
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
I said as an organist - I am NOT a nerd.
My apologies. I meant it as a compliment.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I would quite like to know enough about anything to qualify as a nerd. Or is nerdishness an attitude rather than a body of knowledge?
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
posted by Rossweisse
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
I said as an organist - I am NOT a nerd.
quote:
My apologies. I meant it as a compliment.
Really?
Some dictionary definitions:
I could go on... but that might be nerdish, eh?
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I would quite like to know enough about anything to qualify as a nerd. Or is nerdishness an attitude rather than a body of knowledge?
It's an attitude IMHO. The major characteristic is not that one knows everything about a single, narrow topic, but that one doesn't express any interest in anything else.
 
Posted by roybart (# 17357) on :
 
Coming late to this topic. Probably my first vivid memory is of a time when I was 4. My mother was had planned a birthday party for me, and part of that was to be a treasure hunt.

I see myself on the driveway, before anyone had arrived. I glimpse something badly hidden under the garage drainpipe. It's a small cylinder toy -- when you push it away it returns to you.

When the treasure hunt began I ran to that toy and "found" it. It was mine! Then I realized that this was actually quite a stupid and almost useless toy, and I was stuck with it.

I remember this vividly because I gave a lot of thought to this in later childhood years. I guess you could say that I brooded on things like dishonesty, greed, and the wages of sin, though I had no words for this. This was 3 years before what Roman Catholics conventionally consider to be the "age of reason."

Two things remain from this experience: an ingrained cash-register honesty (about small things, at least), and an aversion to celebrating my birthday.
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
...I could go on... but that might be nerdish, eh?
I have already apologized for giving unintentional offense.
 
Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :
 
Just in the same way as British soldiers in the First World War adopted the nickname Old Contemptibles there are quite a few people who today see 'Nerd' as a name to be proud to own. It means that you have a passion for a subject.

As I nearly wrote of the PE thread, my nephew would be most hurt to learn that swimming for eight hours a week stopped you from being a nerd. He has always owned the titles 'geek' and 'nerd' as does his sister. Even her mum refers to 'H and her nerdy friends' in a tone of pride.

Jengie
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
My teacher washed my mouth with (pink) soap and water for uttering the word 'damn'.
 
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Garfield went up to the teacher to ask how to spell the word 'damn'. She replied D-A-M thinking he was writing a story about the reservoir. He then went back to his desk and wrote 'The Dam thing didn't work'.
 
Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :
 
/tangent/

quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
My husband, whose name is Stephen, was called David for his entire kindergarten year.
Oh, good Lord. I am Steven, and I get David all the time. After doing some linguistics, I came up with a thesis:

Steven and David have very similar pattern of CCVCVC vs CVCVC (C=consonant, V=vowel). In germanic languages, generally, we seem to listen to consonant sounds for meaning. Steven and David have a dental dental stop at or near the beginning [t/d], an intervocalic voiced dental labial fricative in the middle [v], and end with a consonant (though of different types). So, English speakers are not being careless or inconsiderate, just falling prey to how we listen. An Old English professor of mine found the analysis quite plausible.

When I was baptised i took the name David for different reasons, though, by then, I was very comfortable with David as part of my name.

[ 09. February 2018, 17:41: Message edited by: Pangolin Guerre ]
 
Posted by sabine (# 3861) on :
 
When I was 5 I walked three blocks to school alone in New York City and then home again at the end of the school day. I was always on time in the morning (except once, which I'll describe in a bit), but I loved the freedom to take the long way home in the afternoon, exploring such things as the park I was told not to go into, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and all sorts of bodegas.

One morning, I got stuck alone in the elevator of our building. By the time I was rescued and walked to school, I was very late. My teacher told me that she didn't believe my explanation and gave me a note to take home. My parents sorted it out with her, but I was left with a sense that my wanderings should remain things pondered but not discussed around the dinner table.

Decades later, I shared with my mother some of the things I did. She reacted to each one with an astounded "You did not!"

I studied anthropology later in life. Coincidence? You tell me.

sabine
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Rossweisse
My apologies.
It has been pointed out to me that the term "nerd" is not necessarily viewed as a pejorative elsewhere than the UK.
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:

My apologies.
It has been pointed out to me that the term "nerd" is not necessarily viewed as a pejorative elsewhere than the UK.
Thank you, L'organist. I appreciate it.
 
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Chorister in most primary schools in NZ children start school on their 5th birthday, although legally they don't have to start until they are 6, many people don't realise this).

My 5 year old self was a bolshie kid who refused to go and sit in the corner for being naughty. I wish I had kept some of that strength.

Huia
 
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
In NSW schools, a child could start at the beginning of the year if fifth birthday was before 30/6. My eldest was born in September and had to wait till the next yer. If ever a boy was ready early, he was it. Lots of stimulation needed in those months.

My judgment as to his readiness was borne out after he had been in Kindie for about a week. Loads more enrolments than expected left kindie teachers struggling. He was promoted to first grade after about a week at school. He coped just fine.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
At 4 1/2 years old I was desperate to follow my elder sister to school. When I got there, and found myself in a reading class, as you do, I remember asking the girl next to me what "the" was in our reading books. The answer was "she." Wrong. I gave up asking for advice from that point on, at least from my peers.
 
Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I was living in South Africa, not due to start school for another two years. My Dad was a minister in SOWETO so we spent a lot of time in the townships and out in the ‘bush’ playing with the local children.

An idyllic childhood, I was very sheltered. I didn’t know there was such a thing as cruelty until I was past seven years old. I remember crying all night when I found out not everyone was as kind and caring as my parents and the people who surrounded us.
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
Since shows like, "The Big Bang," "nerd," has not only lost most of it's weight as an insult, it's the latest way to humble-brag. For example, "Oh, I was such a math nerd in high school," says, "I was really smart in school."
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by sabine:
When I was 5 I walked three blocks to school alone in New York City and then home again at the end of the school day.
You did not!

When my son started kindergarten, we parents were all getting a note from the school saying the kids were old enough to walk to school by themselves. As it turned out, I walked with my son because I decided to volunteer as an aide to the sixth grade teacher at the same time.

A group of little ones attached themselves to me like magnets (they knew they shouldn't have been alone.) Hardly a day went by that one of them didn't start to follow a precious colored picture out into the street, or just fall in that direction from jostling.

I didn't do the herding work all by myself though, I had superior help from a collie who lived along the route and took it on herself to walk between the kids and the street. She was wonderful and continued her mission long after I had moved on.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
We went to and from school on our own right from the start. Because we had to cross the road to get the bus home from prep school, my mum carefully showed us the lollipop lady a hundred yards or so in the wrong direction from the bus stop, and told me to cross with her. An instruction I carefully ignored for six years, probably contributing to several near heart attacks for drivers.

[ 13. February 2018, 10:39: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
I always walked to school alone after the first day with no issues, apart from the day I got half way and ran home screaming because I thought I saw a snake on the pavement that hissed at me (It wasn't a snake, it was a fur collar that had become detached from someones coat)
 
Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Kitten:
I always walked to school alone after the first day with no issues
I was 6 when I moved to a different school, and had to take a bus. On a few occasions, I was slow changing out of my sports clothes at the end of the day, and so arrived in front of the school in time to see the back end of the bus heading down the road.

One time I had followed the bus some considerable distance down the road before I realized:
 So I went back to school and waited...
 
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
An instruction I carefully ignored for six years, probably contributing to several near heart attacks for drivers.
We lived on a hill with a woods between our house and Route 35, where the cars went by at about 90 MPH in those days. As a young teen, when I would go down to check the mail, I would run down the woods path at top speed, then do a grand jete over the ditch that was between the woods and the road and land on point next to the mailbox.

I am truly appalled now to think of the deadly pile up I could have caused if a driver had seen me sailing out of the woods just as he approached.

{ I could never convert to Catholic, my first confession would take weeks.)
 
Posted by Rossweisse (# 2349) on :
 
When I was in kindergarten, our house had a view of the hill down which I would descend to school, or ascend from same, under my mother's unseen eye. When we moved, in first grade, I was on my own. There were some older children who would deign to make sure we weren't kidnapped, though.

I only remember being taken to or picked up from school when there was a large project to be schlepped, or an appointment right afterward. Those were different times.
 
Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Yes, when I started school, my mother took me for the first day certainly, and I don't know how much longer after that, but very soon I was taken to school by my friend, a big girl of 10.

M.
 
Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
I remember walking alone to kindergarten four blocks away from my house. Actually I frequently fell in step with other children, but there were no adults supervising us.

This was in a residential neighborhood in 1939 in Washington, D.C.

Moo


c
 
Posted by Fredegund (# 17952) on :
 
Another one who walked from the start. Not more than .5 mile, but I told myself long sagas on the way. Never occurred to me that I probably looked mad. (nothing's changed, then)
 


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