I was one who was rapped on the hand with a ruler for reading to the end of the book in reading circle in first grade (the little girl next to me informed the teacher of my great transgression). My first grade “teacher” was so very insightful that instead of thinking, “this child can already read easily at the first grade level, what can I do to direct her reading skills to the next level?,” she punished me for finishing a book too quickly.
Like yours, another great moment in teaching.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. First grade. Miss Cenci.
The first day, you sat in a circle and read some passages. Your clever teacher put you in a *reading group* ...either you were a *cardinal*, a *Bluebird*, or a *Canary*.
By day 2....EVERYONE knew the Cardinals were the best readers, and so on. LOL
And your parents did NOT question, that their *snowflake* was feeling bad that s/he was a Canary.
One girl, could not keep in her seat for very long. There was no alphabet name for her problem. Miss Cenci used my jump rope, and tied the little girl to her chair. I felt sorry for the girl; she kept raising her hand, and the teacher ignored her; the girl peed her pants, she must have been asking to go to the bathroom. Miss Cenci was unphased. We were terrified of her. Guess what? We survived.
I was reading BEFORE I entered kindergarten, thanks to the then-new Dr. Seuss books. So you can imagine how boring kindergarten, first grade, and second grade were for me, as those grades are primarily concerned with teaching reading. Instead of giving me more advanced work to keep me constructively busy, the teacher sought to hold me back to the rest of the class's level. She discouraged me going beyond the rest of the class by punishing me, which consisted of putting me out in the hall. I was out in the hall so much, I was on a first-name basis with the principal! And it was not for misdeeds, but for stuff like reading ahead. The principal knew this, which is why he greeted me kindly every time I was in the hall for punishment. However, I wonder why he did not intervene to get me more advanced work. Perhaps in those times, that was not "the thing to do", but it seems like it would have made common sense to do so.