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An Explanation Of I Used My Brain By Shirley Jackson

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The sun lazily creeps through the window, painting the normally gray walls a calming yellow. During its rare appearance over the tiny elementary school in Washington, students labor over their math worksheets within the confines of their matching gray desk. Except for one little girl. Her appearance matches her Norwegian town with her blond hair and light-colored eyes. Sitting at her desk, she begins to explain her answer. She shows her teacher how she used numbers to solve the problem. Then she shows the sheep that she drew to represent the problem, just as the worksheet asked. She even wrote the explanation “I used my brain.” This statement, unfortunately, does the teacher's requirement. The teacher wants her to write about how she used the sheep to count how many 3x4 would be but fails to understand that the girl drew the sheep because the problem told her to not because she needed to use them. …show more content…

The girls already poor writing ability eventually leads the teacher give up and claim that the girl is just stupid. The teacher starts giving the girl special worksheets and slowly these sheets pull the girl farther and farther behind her classmates. The school eventually tells her parents that they should allow their daughter to enter a special program for people of similar mental ability. The girl is lucky that same stubborn streak that got her into trouble came from her parents, who fought and clawed until eventually, the school allowed for her to be tested. That test proved she was intelligent and deserved her spot in her

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