Checking My Work

When I was in the fourth grade at Eastward School in Fairbury, my teacher's name--by some coincidence that would only become apparent to me decades later--was named Mrs. Bauer. She was a good teacher, patient and kind. Her classroom was invariably calm. My classmates worked hard and generally did everything Mrs. Bauer required. (As I look at the photo below, I can't help but think that the overall class character was heavily influenced by the overwhelming number of girls in the class.)

After all these years, I'm surprised that I remember the names of 90% of the kids in this photo.

I'm standing in the middle row, second from the left.

I was a good student. I loved to read, and arithmetic was always easy for me. I remember how Mrs. Bauer would assign our daily arithmetic assignments, always giving us ample time to complete the work in class. That year, long division was the newest, hardest thing we had to learn, but I caught on quickly. Not everyone did.

Mrs. Bauer directed the early finishers to check their work until our time was up. I was usually one of the first to finish the assigned problems, so I dutifully checked my work, over and over again, as necessary, until it was time to move on to Social Studies or Science, or whatever else we needed to do that day. Sometimes, I caught and corrected a mistake or two, but I remember going over the same faultless problems, ad nauseam, when I really would have preferred to read my book.

Mrs. Bauer's insistence on checking our work probably improved my overall math instincts, but it also contributed heavily to my already innate perfectionism. As a result, I still find myself double-checking my Sudoku puzzles to make sure each row is filled in correctly. Really? Who cares?! 

And on those rare occasions when I write out a long division problem, I still find myself automatically (and quickly) back-checking every step. I guess that time-honored adage is true: Old habits die hard.

Start children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6