I didn't, not quite (though the school system I went through is closer to that state now than it was when I was there), but my parents did.

>spent the next...
>month or two? Reading.
>
>In first grade.

Man, I got so much crap in kindergarten for already being able to read. I was like, "Where are the books? I can play with blocks at home, I don't need to be surrounded by loud strangers to do that." (Not in so many words, I was five, but that is a fair approximation of my sentiments. :)

>I adored my fourth grade teacher, a tiny little waif of a woman whose
>name I can remember but have no hope of spelling, enough that, all
>through fifth grade, I would stop by on the way out of the building to
>give her a hug before I went home - just because she was fair and that
>was such a nice change.
>
>I learned just a couple of hours ago that she had died of cancer while
>I was in High School.
>
>So... I guess rambling about it on the internet helps me work that
>feeling out.

Oof, yeah. That's rough. My first-grade teacher (who has a similar place in my personal pantheon for coming along and being a Reasonable Person after kindergarten) died earlier this year, and hearing about it was a sort of, "... Shit, what? That's not allowed, why wasn't I consulted?" sort of moment. :/

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.