Mr Phillips

By James Carroll

When I was in sixth grade at Mechanicsville Jr High School, my teacher was Mrs Burke. About six weeks before the end of the school year Mrs Burke informed the class that anyone who couldn't memorize the first 50 Roman numerals would not be promoted to seventh grade. I really didn't think that she would take such a drastic stance on something so trivial. I worked on those Roman Numerals until I had dreams about them; anyway, I had to repeat sixth grade.

The next year I was assigned to Mr Phillips Room. One day the subject of Roman Numerals come up and Mr Phillips said , anyone who wanted to learn Roman Numerals should stay in at recess and he would teach us how to do all Roman Numerals in the ten minute period. That was for me!

He wrote some letters on the board... I, V, X, L, C, D and M. This will get you started. That was the most productive ten minutes in my entire life. Everyone who stayed in that day thought it was great, we were all doing Roman Numerals when we didn't have to but because it was fun. I wont go into details about how to do Roman Numerals because that's not what this article is about.

You may wonder if I was bitter about having to repeat sixth grade, far from it. I think of all the ones I would never have known if I hadn't. Speedy Ball, Uncle Bud Angle, Morris Angle, Ted Tally, Georgia Faye ( Ted's sweetheart ) Dee Harrison, Carl Johnson and a few more.

I was having problems with remembering bible verses, so I thought I would apply the same principle, I would go through the verse and pick out the main words and try to remember them in order.

For example:

  1. Hate
  2. Separate
  3. Reproach
  4. Evil
  5. Rejoice
  6. Leap
  7. Reward
  8. Like manner..This helps to keep your mind organized and keeps the verse from being scattered. It helps you remember which part of the verse comes next.

    1. Luke 6:22
    2. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the son of man's sake.
    3. Luke 6:23
    4. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap with joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.