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I know a young girl who loves to play Minecraft. She is very smart. I helped play the game by naming a couple of kitty characters. They looked Siamese, so I named them Samantha and Prince, after my own Siamese kitties. Samantha lived to be 20, but Prince lived only 12 years which, for a completely indoor Siamese mix, is a short life for a pet in our family. The average is between 15-17 years.

Oh, they were. Thank you for your nice words about my cats. I have had so many cats (and dogs) and loved them all. Each and every one will forever leave their pawprint on my heart.

Yes, indeed. They were all unique, but all had one important thing in common-they were loved.

Stampy: Are you going into the 8th, or are you going into the 9th grade?

8th grade yay

That means you'll be graduating middle school. Or is it junior high?

When I was going to school, kids used to graduate from junior high in the 9th grade.

High school will probably be at least a bit better than middle school. Middle school is probably the worst time for most kids.

Yeah, middle school.

That's interesting. Was junior high 6th grade to 9th grade, then?

Hopefully it will be a little better . Middle school wasn't horrible for me because my school is very anti-bullying, but I'll be glad to go to high school because that's when school becomes more important for your future career.

Back when I was going to school, K to 6th grade was elementary school, and 7-9th was junior high.

About 2 generations before me, "grammar school" was 1-8th grades. Kindergartens frequently weren't part of elementary school then.

Hopefully, you can get into a decent program within the mainstream part of the high school. There is the tendency, in special ed, to devalue a student's potential. They might even encourage a student not to go for the mainstream diploma, if the student is deemed too "disabled" for it.

Another thing different when I was going to school: There were no IEP's.

When I was in first grade, I was in a class with kids with all sorts of disabilities--including deafness. Fortunately (though I didn't like her at the time!), the teacher was able to instruct me according to my individual abilities. During reading time, she would let me read about Greek mythology.

Then I went to a "special school" for kids with disabilities. I don't know the exact "program" I was in--but it was academically-based, fortunately. The instruction was done in quite a similar manner as was done in a "regular" class. The only difference: there were less kids in the class. When I was disruptive in class, I would be sent to the hall to calm down. In more extreme cases, I might get sent down to the principal's office.

I was so "into myself" that I didn't really form a bond with a teacher until junior high. I just thought they dispensed discipline, and that they wouldn't want to be my friend.

I didn't develop any regard for education or knowledge until I got to high school. I just though "school" was a place kids had to "go to" every day.

Yeah, I can't imagine what it must have been like with no IEP's. Many of the kids in my classes today wouldn't be there.

It's nice how your teacher would let you do what you wanted to do sometimes, though.

How many kids were in the class?

In that first grade class, there were at least 30---or so it seemed. It was a "regular" amount of kids, though.

At my "special school" (Summit School), there were usually about 10-15 kids per class.

When the teacher was teaching in first grade, we had to sit at our (individual) desks with hands folded. There was nothing on the walls that I could remember. There was a separate desk for reading, though.

We didn't have anything like "writers workshop" or "circle time."