When Matt first started kindergarten, I thought he was the luckiest person alive. He got new clothes, he got to ride on a big bus and he was allowed to leave the house for a few hours without Mom.
Jeremy and I were so jealous. In our eyes he was a man of the world.
We would wait anxiously for him to return, watching in the picture window for the bus to pull up. He would walk up our driveway everyday, backpack strapped to his back, holding Mom's hand. When he came in, he would sit at the table and have Mom's undivided attention.
I thought he was so lucky, until this one day.
In kindergarten in Blackstone (back in 1976, at least), the first book you were given to read was called Sun Up. The beginning of the book reads:
The sun was up. Bing was up. Sandy was up. Bing and Sandy was up.
Clearly the author of the book cared more about learning to read than grammar.
Matt took the yellow and orange book out of his backpack and showed Mom. She told him to read for her. He looked at the cover of the book and read the title.
"Sun Up", he said.
Mom was so proud.
I was so jealous. He was reading words from a book. Real words. Not just making them up. He knew what the words really said.
He opened to book to the first page. He was so confident because he had just read the title with ease. The first word was the.
Matt looked at the word and said "ta-ha-eee".
Mom had to tell him the word was the.
He corrected himself and continued reading. Soon enough the word the came up again. Again Matt said "ta-ha-eeee".
I could hear the frustration in Mom's voice. The word came up several more times on those first few pages, but not once could he read the word correctly.
Finally Mom told him it was time to take a break. I think it was all she could do to keep from strangling him.
My brother, the published writer, struggled and struggled with the word the.
When it was my turn to go to kindergarten and read Sun Up, I never stumbled on the word.
I guess I have my brother to thank for that.
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