what is the student but a lover courting a fickle mistress who ever eludes his grasp?

1. What did you enjoy most about kindergarten?
   finally getting to go to school, after years of wishing to do so but being prevented by my age, which seemed brutally unfair.
2. What did you enjoy most about elementary school?
   learning. Doing assignments. Writing. Taking tests. Reading. Studying.
   My favorite subject was English
3. What did you enjoy most about junior high/middle school?
   boys! And everything that I'd loved from elementary school, too--I was still me, only a little older.
   Subject-wise, I loved Science.
4. What did you enjoy most about high school?
   boys. And still the school stuff.
   Subject-wise, I was probably most into Politics and Government then. "Social Studies."
5. Which grade or year of school was your least favorite and why?
   Fourth. My teacher was a strong, independent woman...who happened to be pregnant when the school year started. Her condition became complex and required bed-rest, so she was replaced by a long-term substitute who was not unfamiliar to those of us who had attended that school before. While she was not without skills, she was definitely not capable of handling a fourth grade class, full-time, with particular ease or finesse.
   Most of that year was a waste. I remember spending vast periods of time by myself in the coat room (a sort of anteroom in the back of the classroom), tucked up on the floor beneath the coat-hooks, reading from my library books. I was "allowed" (i.e. encouraged, forced, whatever) to do that when I was through with my assignments and my presence was no longer needed in the classroom. Because I was one of the few "smart kids" in the class, I would usually finish early and "distract" the others, so I was sent away and ignored so that the others (the "dumb kids") could be taught. It wasn't fair or effective or decent in either direction and caused all sorts of hurt feelings. But, hey: I'm sure it only helped foster my love of reading, right?
6. What percentage of your classmates do you still have some real interaction with at least once per year?
   Thanks to FB, I probably communicate with 5-10% of my elementary through high school classmates at some point during each year. Sadly, the number of communications per person increases each year as the number of classmates decreases. I miss my friends.

[from The Cat, who got it here; the title quotation is by William Osler]