Ode to Ma'am

I recently found my old High School English teacher on Facebook. She was one of my favorite teachers in high school and really taught me so much. I made this digital layout a couple of years ago for a challenge on a scrapbook site that I thought I'd share since she claims she reads my blog - LOL! Makele was so little in these pictures -

Journaling Reads -

I’m not quite sure when or how it happened, this passion for the English language. Growing up, my mother always corrected me when I used improper English. Being a typical child, I would use the phrase more often just to annoy her. One of my favorites and one that bothered her the most was “more better.” I might as well have scratched my fingers on a chalkboard; she reacted the same way. Another phrase that my brothers used often and that bothered her to no end was, “I don’t got any,” and the word (or non-word) “aint.” One of their favorite sayings was, “Aint aint a word and you aint ‘possed to say it. Say aint five times and you aint goin’ to heaven!” Oh, the memories of seeing my mother cringe.

So how did it happen that I’m now the one who cringes when I hear bad English? I guess my mom’s efforts weren’t all for nothing after all. My distaste for improper English probably also has something to do with the fact that I had the best English teachers growing up that really instilled in me a love for the language. One lesson in particular that I remember and still use came from Mr. Myer’s eight grade English class. He gave everyone in the class a picture of an apple and a gummy worm. He told us that any word used to describe the worm in relationship to the apple was a preposition. Place the worm “inside” the apple, “near” the apple, “by” the apple, “around” the apple. Each of these words is a preposition. This lesson helped me in high school and college in diagramming sentences and writing.

In ninth grade, Mrs. Baugh definitely knew her stuff. She explained English so clearly and with such great examples that it was impossible not to catch on.

The rest of my high school English was spent in “Ma’am’s” class. What a woman! She was probably the teacher that inspired me the most in my love for English. Full of energy and quirky “ma’amisms,” her own love of the English language was infectious. She always encouraged me to study hard and be prepared for college. Not wanting to disappoint her, I really applied myself. My goal was to get my name on her “ACT 30 or higher” list hanging at the front of the classroom. With the help of her practice tests and a lot of study, I scored a 36 on the English portion of the test - a perfect score! That sealed the deal. I was now a full-fledged ambassador for the English language.

I still like to tease my mom a bit by dropping a bit of bad English here and there, but somehow it’s not as fun anymore. I have taken up her quest to rid my household of improper language use. To my family, I’m known as somewhat of an English Language Gestapo. My dad gets a kick out of my correcting him in his e-mails. Some of my most hated non-words are

“irregardless,” “funner,” and “anyways” (for the record the correct terms are “regardless,” “more fun,” and “anyway”). I also get a certain satisfaction in correcting my husband’s English and driving him crazy in the process.

Maybe it was my mom who was having all the fun after all. She just let us children think we were getting one over on her. Whatever the reason, thank you, Mom, for having the patience and persistence to teach me proper English.

Disclaimer: I have been out of school for a while and am suffering from a complicated disease sometimes referred to as “mommy brain.” If there are any errors in the above paragraphs, it is due to this ailment and not my normal ability to think and process things logically!

Thank you, Ma'am, for being such a great teacher! By the way, I know I use a lot of hanging prepositions in my blog. It's something I need to work on ;) - ha, ha!