QUOTE=2dlight;1879330]I too attended public school in Santo Domingo up to the sixth grade. When Trujillo was assassinated, the school I was attending, La Paraguay, was burned down and we took classes at Instituto Salome' Urena for a while. I remember a high degree of discipline and no-nonsense teachers during those school years. It was not unusual to get struck over the knuckles or open palms with an 18 inch ruler in those days. When I arrived in New York in February, 1963, in the dead of winter, I was placed in fifth grade. I knew two words in English: yes, no. It was total immersion the rest of the way.
you got lucky 2D, I was put back 2 grades also in the dead of winter, lol.[/QUOTE]
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Oh, no. That's too bad.
When my parents took me to Puerto Rico, to start 9th grade, my first English teacher concluded I was too far behind in comparison to my classmates, and insisted on placing me with the 7th graders. I vehemently refused. Over and over...
She stopped grading my exams, and assigned me a 'D' grade permanently. She practically ignored me, refusing to acknowledge me when I raised my hand to answer questions. And I was just a kid, recently arrived from the D.R. and wiling to learn, but treated unfairly. Hated those days: Classmates ridiculing me left and right: Dominica no piki ingli...
SHORTLY afterwards, English teacher was replaced. The new one knew nothing about me.
By the end of the school year, the kid was #1 IN CLASS. I came; I saw; I kicked their butts.