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In reply to the discussion: Twelve-Year-Old Nevada School Shooter Left Suicide Note – Bullies Called Him Gay [View all]tblue37
(65,269 posts)seniors paired up with 9th-graders that way, too. It made the transition so much easier for them.
When I was in grade school (1955-1961), 5th and 6th grade students with high grades and good behavior had were recommended by teachers to serve as "readers" for the lower grades. During periods when our own class was not doing much--like after lunch, when the homeroom teacher would read to her class--we "readers" would go to our assigned classes of younger kids and read to them so their teachers could have lunch or work on grading or prep.
I was a reader during my fifth and sixth grade years. I loved doing it, and the little kids treated me like some sort of superhero. They would even go nuts when they were out in public with their families and spotted me, just as we used to do when we ran into a teacher in a store. I am 63, and I have taught college since 1972. I also served as a substitute teacher in our city's elementary schools for a year. But my years as a 10-year-old and 11-year-old grade school reader are still among my fondest memories at the front of a classroom.