Today\u2019s little story is about the first time I ever failed a class. I will never forget this event until the day my Alzheimer\u2019s fully kicks in. Some people go their entire scholastic<\/u> career without ever tasting this bitter dish. For me it was not until my freshman year of high school. My father was furious, as to be expected. He was always angry about something I did, or did not do. Whatever the case may be, at the end of the day it really did not matter one bit that I failed this class because it was a non-required elective<\/u>.<\/p>\n
The class in question was TYPING. Of course this was still in the 1980\u2019s when most people still did not use computers and the technology was, to put it bluntly<\/u>, in the Stone Age. The time spent in class was divided into two parts: computers, and typewriters. For those of you who have never used one of these anciently obsolete wonders of technology, they were quite inconvenient to say the least. Unlike a PC keyboard, you needed finger strength when you hit each key. As a matter of fact, you literally had to \u2018hit\u2019 the key in order to generate enough force to move the entire mechanism to produce a single letter. If you get fatigued while using your modern keyboard, imaging trying to type with a 200-gram weight tied to each finger. And do not get me started on how to \u201cdelete\u201d or fix a mistake! It was more of a torture device than a helpful tool. Also the computers were very different too. This next point is essential to the story at hand. In order to save your file, you needed what is called a floppy disc, or \u201cfloppy\u201d as it is colloquially<\/u> known. These were thin, square shaped pieces of plastic that held a thinner material that the data was stored on. If you play video games you have probably seen one, as they are commonly used as \u2018save\u2019 icons. <\/p>\n
Moving on with the story. Each student was given one disc to save their documents (for daily practice) on. We would also have to print out each page, which also took too long, to hand in<\/u> daily as proof of your time spent in class. Anyways, a football (American brand) team mate of mine had forgotten his disc or lost it. Either way he did not have one on that day, so I decided to let him borrow my disc to use in class, because without the disc you were not able to print anything out. He promised me that he would delete the file after he printed it out as to cause no problems. Well, as it turns out, I should not have trusted him to do what he promised. The next week, when it was my group\u2019s turn to use the computers and turn in the disc at the end of the week, the teacher discovered the file, and accused me of cheating. She said that I had stolen the other boy\u2019s document, even though I had the same lesson saved with entirely different mistakes. The boy vouched for<\/u> me and told the teacher what had happened, but the teacher was not having it. She claimed that I made him lie to her etc. and then commenced to fail me on the spot, for the entire course mind you. <\/p>\n
If I had actually been able to convince that boy to defend me and risk his reputation like the teacher thought, I would have made a great politician! <\/p>\n
Kevin<\/p>\n
Vocabulary<\/b><\/p>\n
scholastic (adjective) \u2013 of or concerning schools and education
\nelective (noun) \u2013 an optional course of study
\nbluntly (adverb) \u2013 in a clear and straightforward way (i.e. a frank way)
\ncolloquially (adverb) \u2013 in the language of ordinary or familiar conversation; informally
\nhand in (phr. verb) \u2013 to submit or give to someone to be checked or marked
\nvouch for (phr. verb) \u2013 to defend or support; to confirm that something is true<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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