Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

[With apologies to The Who for that subject line.]

Thinking back on my education ... babbling to anniemal and comparing notes on our high school experiences ... reflecting on middle school, high school, and university, and my good fortune[*] in having had several excellent teachers ...

... And I was reminded yet again what a huge debt I owe to Anne Riley. And to Maria Montessori, of course, but I feel more personally grateful to the woman who was my teacher from age three and a half until I left her school to enter the seventh grade when I was eleven[**], than to the inventor of the instructional method she used.

Mrs. Riley deemed me ready to move on, despite feeling uncertain about my math skills. She'd prepared me better than she realized. (And math turned out to be my strongest subject.)

[*] Much of that "luck" was manufactured by my parents, by choosing to send me to Key and jumping through whatever hoops it took to get financial aid, and paying for what the aid didn't cover, as well as their having kept me in Montessori before then. Still, I'm lucky these schools and these teachers existed and were nearby, and I'm lucky to have had parents who made those decisions.

[**] I see from the web site that the school now includes a junior-high program. When I was there, it didn't.