3rd Grade Trauma

I was talking to Southern Boy about this memory the other day...  I'm not sure why this memory is so burned into my brain that it randomly pops up other than the fact that it must have traumatized me when it occurred....  Morgan was trying to read her nighttime story with me...specifically, she tries to say the words with me...as I say them....super fun...  This triggered my third grade memory...

I had a 3rd grade teacher in Nebraska that I absolutely loved....I adored her...  She's the kind of teacher I hope Morgan or Kylee have one day.  If you remember third grade, that's an age where you still hold your teacher up on that magical pedestal.  After lunch, our teacher would read to us from a chapter book while we sat at our desks and colored.  She was reading Charlotte's Web - one of my favorites!  I remember mouthing the words silently to myself while my teacher read out loud and I colored happily.  I was really in my own little world and happy as could be.  All of a sudden I noticed the teacher had stopped reading, and I looked up from coloring.  She was standing by my desk looking down at me and said out loud, "You are so rude" and then walked away.  I don't remember if she kept reading after that point because I was filled with so much shame that the teacher found me rude that I don't think I would have noticed.

I was not raised to run home after school and cry about my hurt feelings to my parents, so out of embarrassment, I never shared this story with them.  Looking back as an adult, the adult Diane would approach the teacher at a later time and ask for clarification of how I was rude.  I would have apologized for the perception and communicated that it was not my intention to be  rude.

Crazy how a third grade memory can still bring back feelings of shame and embarrassment....  

Did I say this was the type of teacher I hope Morgan and Kylee have one day?  The embarrassed me might like to take that statement back...