Shirley liked to tell the story of how, when she was very young, in the early grades in school, she would read to the other kids.

Her parents had a set of little blue books, each one devoted to an author and his works. She was reading through them. She read them at home, and took the latest to school to keep reading it.

One day on the playground, a teacher on duty noticed a group of children. She rushed over, expecting to have to break up a fight.

Instead, she discovered the children gathered around little Shirley.

“What’s going on here?” the teacher asked.

“She’s reading us a story,” the children answered, happy to be around someone who could read.

“Let me see!” said the teacher, and snatched the book Shirley was reading.

It was Stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

“You aren’t able to read this!” said the teacher.

“Oh yes,” said the children. “The stories are good.”
Shirley nodded.

The teacher, wishing to establish her authority, said, “Alright, show me how you read,” and thrust the book back.

Shirley continued the story from where she left off.

The teacher said, “Oh.”

Then added, “We’d better skip you up a grade.”

That skipped-up grade followed her into high school where she was younger than her classmates.

When I met her in the middle of sophomore year, in mid-semester, at a school new to her, the counselor put her in regular classes just to be safe and make sure. Shirley wanted to go to college, but wasn’t quite on track with the pre-requisites she had skipped over.

In her junior year, she would be taking advanced algebra/ trigonometry, but she had missed geometry. So she had to make it up in summer school before next year. To fill out her summer schedule, she took drafting as an elective.

Drafting required geometry. She hadn’t taken geometry. So she was drafting with a T-square, compass and protractor, and reading ahead in the geometry book to see how it all worked.

Her drafting was meticulous, beautiful, and earned her an A. Her geometry, with her father’s help on homework, caught her up and she joined me in classes at the same level. So we were able to finish high school together, she just a year younger.

A younger woman! I was robbing the cradle.

She was always ahead of her age group.

She had skipped a grade.