Ah yes, one of the (many) moments of reckoning of my young life: the breakage of the Phonic Ear’s microphone by my former gym teacher, “Mr. Potts.” (His real name is pretty close.)
As most of you know, there are a lot of good — and even great — teachers. But there are also a few clunkers, too. Mr. Potts was a clunker! For all you teachers out there reading this — especially P.E. teachers — a little bit of kindness goes a long way. Also, I hope that paddles with holes drilled in them have been banned, because those things are just plain wrong.
So yes, in this video, I talk about Mr. Potts “accidentally” breaking my microphone (I use the quotation marks because he didn’t show much remorse afterwards).
You’ll find out more about what it was like to go four to six weeks at school without my microphone (sheer agony!), and you’ll also learn how my mom stepped up to make the wait a little less long. She’s amazing.
And finally, I talk about the dreaded flexed-arm hang, which is one of several events that kids back then (and maybe even now) had to do in their attempts to acquire the coveted Presidential Physical Fitness Award patch.
I only got this patch once in my entire school career, as I am not widely known for my athletic prowess. You’ll find out from reading the book and from watching the video that I did get this award — but not without the stars lining up in such a way to make it possible. Question: is it cheating if you don’t tell your gym teacher that he recorded the results of an event incorrectly, and in your favor?
I hope that after you watch this video, you’ll find yourself a pull-up bar and try to beat my personal best: 64 seconds!!!
Thanks so much for watching. Here’s the video!
Cece Bell 
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