Wonderland Burlesque's Back To School, Fool Quiz - Part I

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Back To School, Fool Quiz

Part I

Yay! All the screaming children are back in classrooms where they belong and I, for one (along with their parents) couldn't be happier.

For today's quiz, we look back on our own illustrious school careers, hitting every topic I could think of - which is why there are two parts - as I am feeling lazy and only want to answer six questions at a time.

Today? You get to grade yourself. College? High School? Grade School?

How did you do? What are your current skills?

Did you have a favorite teacher in that given subject? Perhaps one who inspired/one who frightened?

Let's take it one topic at a time!

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1/ English/Grammar/Punctuation/Writing

My current approach to punctuation is... creative! I don't know how else to describe it. 

I never really bothered to pay attention to any of it. Sentence structure? If I can make sense of it, it's good enough for me. I really am very envious of those who know all the bits and pieces when it comes to sentence structure. I have a great deal of guilt regarding my ignorance and my willingness to remain so. At this point in life, I'm too lazy to actually learn anything. 

Not that it's ever hurt me. You see, I rely on 'the writer's voice' to get me through and guide me. If it sounds proper in my head, in the voice it's being written in, then I accept it as is. Of course, I break all kinds of rules. Yet, even during my last turn in college, I somehow managed to receive top grades for all the papers I wrote. My submission for Summa Cum Laude about the need for ethics in business was even picked by the department for presentation and discussion at their next full-faculty meeting.

So, fooled them?

I do remember taking a creative writing course in high school and floundering. Or it felt that way. We had to write a short story and I never felt mine had any focus. The instructor was one of the best teachers in the school - he also oversaw the school newspaper for which I served as editor. He was very kind, but generous with the big red pen. 

I never thought of myself as a writer, really. 

But that is now my goal. To write. I don't know to what ends.

I simply feel compelled. 

Though I do carry a bit of shame regarding my lack of technical knowledge. 

2/ Literature/Reading

There was a time I couldn't be bothered to read a script all the way through before signing on to something. I just said 'yes.' 

And I had a terrible habit of claiming to have read something when I had not, going so far as to fill entire blue books during final exams prattling on about a novel I'd never bothered to read, save for the chapter titles. 

That's certainly not true today. 

I read. Really read. It takes me forever to get through a book because I re-read things over and over. I also go slow enough to digest the author's intent. No longer a skimmer, I truly want to discover what it is a publisher saw in a given manuscript. My favorite part it listening to the author's voice. The good ones all have one. 

My current favorite is Toni Morrison. I'm reading her book, Paradise - a messy, messy novel in which her poetry still manages to float forth effortlessly. I found her The Bluest Eye to be a rather remarkable accomplishment. 

I'm also reading classics. I find them all fascinating.

I read in bits and pieces. And I'm not sure who taught me to value books, but I always have. More so, now, of course, than when I was young. I've always had a love for mythology, fables, and storytelling. Novels are merely an extension of that. 

And that's the nature of a gifted writer - one who is able to create their own mythology. 

3/ Languages

I took German in high school. Paid lip service to it and parroted back what I was given because at the time I had no concept of the world and thought it was a make believe language that I'd never have any use for. 

I tried French in college. Never went to class. Never took the final. Never learned a stitch.

Last time around, I took two courses of Spanish. Was teacher's pet. I had a blast. I found the language's structure to be easy to grasp. I had learned quite a bit of Latin, thanks to Catholicism and theatre, so it felt familiar on my tongue. Then I started to watch Spanish soap operas while cooking dinner each night. That spiced things up. I still have my boxes of homemade flash cards and think about pulling them out and brushing up my skills. I aced both courses. 

But I wouldn't say I speak Spanish. 

Languages must be used in order to live. 

4/ Math

In third grade I was told that math was not for me. I didn't care about it. It made no sense to me.

And so it remained. I sat through high school algebra and was yelled at constantly - two different male instructors, both yelling at me like I was in the military. It was awful. 

Which is why, the first time in college, when it came time for the final exam? I bailed. I couldn't face it. 

And it haunted me for years. And then I went to Minneapolis Community College and had the best instructor ever. I don't know what happened, but I aced it. It came easy. What clicked? I suddenly realized it operated on the same principals as a video game and that is how I began to look at it... like a game. 

I'm not an intelligent person, but I can be clever. And that is the key to learning math. Be clever. 

Later, in my final year at college, as I worked toward finishing a BA in Business, I had to navigate several financial classes that required me to learn formulas that made my head spin. I've never used any of it, nor do I remember any of it. But I aced those classes by sheer determination. And that took a lot, as I, to this day, still have a great deal of anxiety when it comes to math. 

No doubt, thanks to all that yelling.

Yelling. 

That'll learn ya!

5/ Science

I loved science. And I was in love with one of my science teachers. He was the coach for the varsity basketball team and despised by his players and the other coaches because he'd never had a winning season. I played basketball and happened to get to see him naked on occasion. 

He was beautiful. Blonde, curly hair and Botticelli features. He looked like he should have been carved out of marble. 

I even adored the way his excess saliva would build up in the corners of his pouty lips... lips I so wanted to become acquainted with. 

Anyhoo - back to science. 

So, I listened to every word that fell from those pursed lips and participated in class like I was a contestant on The Dating Game. 

Science always came very easy for me. It's memorization, and I used to be quite good at it. 

In college, my lab partner floundered when it came to dissecting our poor little stillborn piglet, but I could name every part and aced that class. 

Yet I never saw it as my calling. It was more about meeting requirements. 

My love of nature comes from being in nature.

I remember collecting leaves in fall; identifying and cataloging them. I adored it. I've always loved the smell of the earth. 

I believe in science. I'm alive, thanks to it. 

Those that put their faith in anything else? Well...

They're just not paying attention.

6/ History/Religion

Have always loved history. Again, memorization. But I also liked the stories told. Sadly, we rarely got the whole story back then. Nor were we given much of a sense of how it all inter-related. 

So much of the history I now know, I had to work to uncover for myself. 

Same with religion. 

I used to accept it at face value. 

Then, I remember a turning point in 9th grade. I still had to attend a Wednesday night Catechism class in order be confirmed. It was taught by an English teacher who was very sweet. I gave him the devil, questioning everything he uttered. I threw him off his game for sure. 

The nature of faith made no sense to me. I believed a lot of things... but that didn't make them so. 

So, I poked a lot of holes in whatever story he told the class. 

Finally, he pulled me out of class and told me that he would sign off on my attendance if I would simply not come back to the class. I agreed. 

Fast forward, I ended up graduating from a private Lutheran College where one had to take a couple of classes in religion. Fortunately, they counted the courses I'd taken on mythology at other colleges for credit and I only had to suffer through one such course. It was a sort of world religion class, the highlight of which was that we had to visit a religious institution not of our own faith and write a paper on it.

I visited a synagogue where I used to do childcare during high holidays. I loved the experience and have much respect for the Jewish religion, which is about community building. It's very smart and useful. 

I'm an atheist, these days. Oh, I tried...

But common sense won out.

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And that's enough of me.

Your turn. Leave your answers in the comments section. I love learning a bit more about you with each passing quiz. 

Next week, part two of this quiz will touch upon any remaining subjects not covered today. 

Until then...

Thanks for reading... and participating!

Don't Stay In School - Boyinaband

Rock N' Roll High School - The Ramones