Forrest Gen Forrest And His School Teacher One of my favorites. "Its Me Bedford"

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Here is one of my favorite stories of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
forrest and his school teacher.jpg
 
He might have been Forrest's only teacher! It's thought he got maybe three or four months formal education altogether.

What! You mean a staff officer might have helped him draft his farewell to his troops? A speechwriter? Say it ain't so, Bedford!
 
George Cable, Forrest's secretary, said Forrest was always bellowing, "Whar's that clark!" whenever he wanted something that had been written out read back to him. He said it was 'to get the pitch right' but it was really because he was a slow reader! Nobody slipped in anything he didn't say. As the teacher said, he had 'sense' but didn't apply himself but neither Forrest or the teacher had figured out how he learned. When he needed to learn some math during the war, his selected instructor wasn't sure he could do the job, so Forrest told him. "This is how you teach me," he said. "Tell me clearly what it is, what it is used for and how to do it. I will learn."
 
"Col. Laws was asked once if Forrest was a bright student.

He replied: Bedford had plenty of sense, but would not apply himself.
He thought more of wrestling than his books; he was an athlete".


Seems Bedford's teacher made an accurate assessment of the General.

I had a few like that. Some of them grew up and became engineers and (gasp!) teachers.
 
George Cable, Forrest's secretary, said Forrest was always bellowing, "Whar's that clark!" whenever he wanted something that had been written out read back to him. He said it was 'to get the pitch right' but it was really because he was a slow reader! Nobody slipped in anything he didn't say. As the teacher said, he had 'sense' but didn't apply himself but neither Forrest or the teacher had figured out how he learned. When he needed to learn some math during the war, his selected instructor wasn't sure he could do the job, so Forrest told him. "This is how you teach me," he said. "Tell me clearly what it is, what it is used for and how to do it. I will learn."

Didn't you have a quote about words being like snakes? Wonder if he was dyslexic? Wouldn't have affected anything but the written word (and I haven't really noticed it in the Emma Sansom note, but there are other reading disabilities that would affect you without the obvious problems of dyslexia--and it's on a spectrum, can be severe or not). And it wouldn't affect his math ability--just like discalcula doesn't affect my ability to read--it's just that those numbers move themselves around.

The reason I thought about that is a lot of kids are turned off school early on just because of some disability. Now, we know he needed to work to help the family survive, but boy, it would sure be tempting to think, "Yeah, I'll go be the man of the family instead of sitting here being tortured on a daily basis!" My dad hightailed it off to be a cowboy when he was an 8th grader, so it certainly wouldn't have been unheard of.
 
Didn't you have a quote about words being like snakes? Wonder if he was dyslexic? Wouldn't have affected anything but the written word (and I haven't really noticed it in the Emma Sansom note, but there are other reading disabilities that would affect you without the obvious problems of dyslexia--and it's on a spectrum, can be severe or not). And it wouldn't affect his math ability--just like discalcula doesn't affect my ability to read--it's just that those numbers move themselves around.

The reason I thought about that is a lot of kids are turned off school early on just because of some disability. Now, we know he needed to work to help the family survive, but boy, it would sure be tempting to think, "Yeah, I'll go be the man of the family instead of sitting here being tortured on a daily basis!" My dad hightailed it off to be a cowboy when he was an 8th grader, so it certainly wouldn't have been unheard of.
I've often wondered about the effect of his being switched from being a lefty to being a righty had. That happened to me, even in the 90s because my mother had rather medieval views about left-handedness, and it badly affected my penmanship. Some of Forrest's weird letter formations remind me of my own, and I've seen it in the penmanship of other people who were switched, too.
 
Didn't you have a quote about words being like snakes? Wonder if he was dyslexic? Wouldn't have affected anything but the written word (and I haven't really noticed it in the Emma Sansom note, but there are other reading disabilities that would affect you without the obvious problems of dyslexia--and it's on a spectrum, can be severe or not). And it wouldn't affect his math ability--just like discalcula doesn't affect my ability to read--it's just that those numbers move themselves around.

The reason I thought about that is a lot of kids are turned off school early on just because of some disability. Now, we know he needed to work to help the family survive, but boy, it would sure be tempting to think, "Yeah, I'll go be the man of the family instead of sitting here being tortured on a daily basis!" My dad hightailed it off to be a cowboy when he was an 8th grader, so it certainly wouldn't have been unheard of.

That's interesting - never thought of it! Forrest had that left eye that tended to drift toward his nose, especially when he was tired or sick. That might explain his life-long difficulty with reading. It sure didn't affect his shooting abilities any! He was an excellent shot, and he could see distances very well, often without binoculars. Reading, though, is a different eye use. He inherited this eye from his mother and passed it on to his two children but to a much lesser degree, and two of his brothers also had it and, again, to a lesser degree. It's quite noticeable in most of Forrest's pictures. I think Forrest's problem with school was his nervous system - boring! He seldom sat still for very long. Many people noted he would get up and walk around the room while talking, busy himself with a small chore, just move. The 'blab' schools would require sitting in one place for a while behaving yourself...which he clearly didn't do!
 
I've often wondered about the effect of his being switched from being a lefty to being a righty had. That happened to me, even in the 90s because my mother had rather medieval views about left-handedness, and it badly affected my penmanship. Some of Forrest's weird letter formations remind me of my own, and I've seen it in the penmanship of other people who were switched, too.

Dang! You're certainly on the correct track, I think. I've had students who (even in the 2000s) were forced to switch.

And diane...

"That's interesting - never thought of it! Forrest had that left eye that tended to drift toward his nose, especially when he was tired or sick. That might explain his life-long difficulty with reading. It sure didn't affect his shooting abilities any! He was an excellent shot, and he could see distances very well, often without binoculars. Reading, though, is a different eye use. He inherited this eye from his mother and passed it on to his two children but to a much lesser degree, and two of his brothers also had it and, again, to a lesser degree. It's quite noticeable in most of Forrest's pictures. I think Forrest's problem with school was his nervous system - boring! He seldom sat still for very long. Many people noted he would get up and walk around the room while talking, busy himself with a small chore, just move. The 'blab' schools would require sitting in one place for a while behaving yourself...which he clearly didn't do!"

I can't tell you how many extremely smart kids I've had with ADHD...and I have often wondered about Forrest. So see, we have two excellent theories--actually three, if you throw in vision. I was a good shot when I was younger, and I have really bad astigmatism (I often talk to THAT GUY about our shared astigmatism...you know...since we're there in the room by ourselves and nothing to do...:D and he's just hanging there...), so it's entirely possible. I must say, after I reached middle age I found it hard to shoot at coyotes without my glasses...the last one resembled one of those cartoons--one direction, BOOM! Other direction, BOOM! Never came really close, but he didn't lurk around the house looking for my cat anymore, either!


""
 
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I've often wondered about the effect of his being switched from being a lefty to being a righty had. That happened to me, even in the 90s because my mother had rather medieval views about left-handedness, and it badly affected my penmanship. Some of Forrest's weird letter formations remind me of my own, and I've seen it in the penmanship of other people who were switched, too.

Penmanship was not his strong suit! It does mess with your wiring. It might well have been from that - a few years after the war he couldn't write at all and had either Mary Ann or Willie write for him. His handwriting with his left hand was completely illegible! You'd think it would be the other way around - finally, I can write with the hand I want to write with!
 
Dang! You're certainly on the correct track, I think. I've had students who (even in the 2000s) were forced to switch.
Yeah I have a really freaky pencil grip. Like, people have been pointing it out to me for years. When I write left-handed, I hold a pencil correctly, and it is more comfortable. It is just so much slower.

But my "normal" handwriting is so bad that I have been banned from handwriting memos at multiple jobs. :giggle:
 
Penmanship was not his strong suit! It does mess with your wiring. It might well have been from that - a few years after the war he couldn't write at all and had either Mary Ann or Willie write for him. His handwriting with his left hand was completely illegible! You'd think it would be the other way around - finally, I can write with the hand I want to write with!
That doesn't surprise me. I can write left handed, but as I noted with nathanb1, it's very slow. And it looks like a child's scrawl. It's still probably neater than what I do right-handed, but I just don't have the years of practice for speed or small letters.

I've always been curious about Forrest's handedness. There's a lot of lefties on my dad's side of the family, and there's a never-ending variation of what each person does lefthanded versus righthanded. Other than writing and using American-style silverware--again, thanks Mom!--I do pretty much everything else left-handed. Including using chopsticks. :D

Did he do most things left-handed or was he more ambidextrous?
 
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