Writing Prompt 1

Gena Luke

!! There are many factors that attributed to my ability to read, write and compose.

Growing up in a third world country I recall it being particularly difficult to attend a

convenient school. Public schools in Egypt are extremely poor and deprived of

resources; Therefore I attended a private school that required an expensive tuition.

There are several schools that teach a higher level of education for example IGCSE

(International General Certificate of Secondary Education) and American schools,

however I was fortunate enough to attend an Egyptian private school. In order to attend

a private institution there was a mandatory placement test that identified if one was

educated enough to get accepted.!

! !

! My earliest memory is of my mom repeatedly making me write the same letter.

My mother also taught me the alphabet by asking me to repeat after her then respond

with a word that started with the corresponding letter. For example she would say A

then Id reply A, apple in addition my older brother Habib would irritate me by

answering my mom before I would even get a chance to. Thus resulting in a competition

between me and my brother who can respond first. At this point I loved learning how to

read and write and also found it as an effortless activity with my mom. !

! After countless of hours studying for a few months I was able to place a high

enough score to enter the school. Being in a classroom setting was undoubtedly a

tremendous difference from being in my hello kitty PJs and drinking my moms chilled

luscious fruit cocktails while studying. My teacher was awfully mean and would call on

you randomly to read or write a sentence on an old school chalkboard in front of the

entire class. I remember being so afraid to be called on because if you were to get it

wrong then you would have to put your hands out and the teacher would hit it with a

ruler. One of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood is when I got called on

and made a mistake writing a word and in front of my entire class I had to put my hands

out and was smacked with a ruler and after that I started to study extremely hard. I

believe thats when my studying habits were born, I was so afraid of being humiliated

like that again therefore I would go over and beyond to make sure i studied all of the

vocabulary that was assigned. After that I was never hit with a ruler again. !

!!!!!!!