Straight line deficiency

I've always told everyone I have a straight line deficiency because I can't freehand draw a line in any sort of a straight fashion. It always comes out with a slight skew. I don't know if this was influenced by early kindergarten experiences in my life.

I remember being in kindergarten, and Ms. Davis had a worksheet where we were supposed to trace different kinds of lines on a paper. See exhibit A. Except the one she had us do had different colored racecars on one end and stop signs on the other. I remember that vividly.

So, when I got the paper, we were supposed to trace the lines and then turn in our paper, and then we had free time. Naturally, I did it as fast as I could--in about 7 seconds. I feel like this is only logical for many reasons: 1) The paper had racecars on it. The lines were supposed to be their tracks. Obviously, racecars go fast. 2) If I finished faster, I got more time to play. Why wouldn't I do it fast? 3) I thought this was stupid. Just now when I was googling for an example image, I saw this was called a "pre-writing" practice--something to get kids ready to start working on their letters. I'd been able to write my name since age 2--I signed my name to some card when Rachel was born. (I think it's in her scrapbook if you don't believe me.) If I could make out recognizable letters, it's no wonder this seemed like a total waste of time.

I turned it in and Ms. Davis called me back to her desk. She told me it was sloppy work and she wanted me to do it again, and this time trace more carefully. Well, why didn't you say that's what you wanted in the first place? I don't recall being mad, just thinking, I can trace carefully. You didn't tell me you wanted me to trace carefully. So I traced the crap out of that thing. And even though I can't make straight lines on my own, tracing was not a problem. So I probably spent a full 14 seconds on it this time.

I remember going with my mom to parent-teacher conferences not too much later. Ms. Davis showed Mom the second, carefully traced page, and was gushing over it. She was telling Mom, "You can see how bold and smooth and exact these strokes are. I think this is a result of a combination of intense concentration and steady hand movement." She didn't even mention the original worksheet.

And, no it wasn't! It was just that I didn't act like a racecar when I was doing it the second time. You take out that element, and of course it's going to look good. That doesn't mean I was concentrating on it and trying super hard to "do good work." This was the dumbest exercise ever. You want to show off my school work? I have much more impressive stuff. How about the time I traced my hand and then colored it in like a turkey? That's classic and creative. This? It was tracing lines. Though maybe I couldn't articulate it at that point, I definitely got the impression early on that many kindergarten activities were not awesome indicators of future success, and also that sometimes teachers just needed to have something to show parents to make them think they're good teachers. That's right, I already was beginning to understand elementary school politics.