Reading Circles

Just thinking about it causes me to sweat and squirm in my seat. Once a week, in Mrs. Dennison’s third grade class, we were called up in groups of seven for Reading Circle. While others worked independently, those of us who were summoned approached, with book in hand, to read aloud. Mrs. Dennison always went first, then we took turns, starting on her left, reading a paragraph at a time. I always sat far enough from her so I could count the paragraphs and begin practicing mine in advance. I never listened to the others, and only wanted to make it through the paragraph assigned to me. I, then, quickly counted paragraphs to begin preparing again. 

No matter how hard I tried, I always messed up. Sometimes it was only a slight stumble, but other times it was big enough to cause the others in the circle to roll their eyes, snicker, or even laugh. Their laughter only made things worse, and, like a rolling snowball, mistake one led to number seventeen. One time, Mrs. Dennison just gave my paragraph to the person next to me, hoping I might recover before we went around again.

I try hard not to think about Mrs. Dennison’s reading circle, but I couldn’t help it, recently. I was gathered with a group of recovering alcoholics and addicts, taking turns reading from what is called “The Big Book.” Like the circles long ago, we went around the room, and even though I’m almost sixty, I still found myself counting paragraphs, so I could prepare.

Some of the readers were new to the circle, others were well-versed in such meetings. Some read with ease, others struggled. What stood out, however, was no one laughed when a reader struggled. I guess we all knew it was more important that a person feel comfortable, than that he or she read well. Getting and staying sober is hard enough. We don’t need to add to it with rolled eyes, snickers, or all-out laughter. 

I don’t remember anything we read, but left the circle with a lesson I wished I had learned long ago.