I spent the first couple of years of school being bored absolutely to tears and acting up.

Yup, me too.

And about the typing conversation yesterday: the best typing practice I ever got was early days of AOL and the trivia chat rooms (ongoing user-created trivia contests). You had to learn to type fast if you wanted to beat anyone!

One of my earliest school memories was in the first week or so of first grade, when my reading teacher Mrs. Polley came up to me with a purple textbook (the class was reading a pink one) and suggested I try that one instead. I was much happier.

Mrs. Polley was the only teacher I ever made a craft project Christmas present for, she was that awesome.

I was also what is called a "spontaneous reader."

And me. Started reading things on packets and cans that I'd seen advertised on TV, aged about 3. "Cornflakes" etc. (And they say young people don't learn anything from TV.) I was reading books not long after that, but I remember failing the 'one word at a time' reading tests that the teacher used to make us take, because I needed context. (Obviously. Who reads one word at a time without any context at all?) Later I was told I'd learnt to read visually and picked up other useful skills to compensate for my dyslexia. I blame my parents for playing with flashcards with me when I was 2. And the cornflake packets.

When I was a kid, I used to mangle pronunciation of long words, even though I used them properly in context, just because I had never heard them read or used out loud, but had learned them from books, but not the dictionary, otherwise I would have known how to say them.

Using the words properly drove my two-years-older sister bonkers, so of course I did it even more! I had very little ammo to abuse her as a baby sister should, so my brains were an excellent resource.

When I was a kid, I used to mangle pronunciation of long words, even though I used them properly in context, just because I had never heard them read or used out loud, but had learned them from books

I still do this.

I entered kindergarten able to read.

I remember the 3rd grade, where I had a book open in my lap while everyone worked on something else. The teacher called on me, and a little knowing laugh went around the room in anticipation of me getting into trouble. I looked up, answered the question correctly, then went back to my book. Teacher was Not Pleased, and my reputation with my fellow students did not improve.

Who else got the "You think you're so smart, stop trying to show off" thing?

I still do this.

I was gonna say! Me too!

I did Connie, but I admit that for a long time, I was, if not a show-off, definitely rude about it. It wasn't until much later, when I was a camp counselor, that I understood the complete annoyance of the kid who always had to chime in first with the answer. I finally got it. There's so much power in just staying silent sometimes, even when you know the answer. When I learned that, life got a lot more enjoyable for me (and for everyone around me, most likely).

Cereal:

I also learned the art of phrasing a question (that I already knew the answer to)in such a way that fellow students (and later, colleagues)would be helped. If I saw that some around me were/are looking confused or the "I got it" gleam isn't there in the eye, I'll ask the question that they're too timid to ask, just so that they can hear the answer.