<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So I want to ask, you mentioned a little bit about school. So what was school like as you were going through the grades, like elementary and junior high school?

FS: I was bad; I was very bad. Grammar school, I remember Mrs. Drake, she was an old-fashioned teacher, old lady, mean. But you know, in the fourth grade, she would say, "Frank, I want to flunk you," but there is something, I'll never forget that she said, "You're smart. You're very smart, but you should use your smart in the books," transfer. So she didn't flunk me. They had sympathy.

TI: And so when a teacher like that, when Ms. Drake says, "Frank, you're a smart kid, and if you would just, like, apply it to the..."

FS: Toward this way?

TI: Yeah, you would do well. What did you think when people said that?

FS: It didn't occur to me. In other words, I didn't want to change for some reason. She didn't flunk me, so why should I change? That's my first thought. And then in junior high, I think in junior high they have algebra, Algebra I. Oh, that was hard subject. And the teacher always gave me a D and F's, and she was gonna say, said, "Frank, I want to flunk you." But you know, she says, I'll never forget, she said, "You really try." So then she's the one that told me that Thomas Edison was very stupid in grammar school. He flunked; he actually flunked. And Einstein was kicked out of school because he was retarded, Thomas Edison. So you got two genius that were worse than me.

TI: And the teacher told you this story so that you wouldn't lose hope, or that you would keep trying.

FS: Yes, yes. And when I was in junior high school, eighth grade, my last year, because nine, ten, eleven, twelve, is high school. I had a home study class, and they do a lot of special projects. They teach you something. And then one of the projects was, you know the Gettysburg Address? "Four score and seven years ago"? Everybody had a pet project to remember a work in speech. So it took me a little while, and finally one day, "Frank," Mr. Drury, he went to SC, a very nice person. Very firm, oh, god he was firm. Said, "Frank," he said, "you're the last one. I forgot what you're doing." "Oh, the Gettysburg Address." He said, "How far are you? Can you give it in front of the class?" I said, "I don't know." "Speak and see how far you are." So I went all, almost to the end. But you know, he said, "You got to really study because I hate to flunk you. You're going to go to high school, you know. So if you go to high school with good grades" -- so he says, "Do the last portion." It was the hardest part. It was hard part in there. "You get that, and then why don't you make a speech in front of the class?" Oh, man, that's what I dreaded. That's the reason why I slowed down in memorizing. I didn't want to speak. But anyway, I gave the speech. And I still remember, he said, you know, what do you call the motion with your hands when you speak? He said, "Did you do that intentionally?" I said, "No." He said, "Yeah, because at the precise time your hands flew up or you were signaling, you're motioning." And I was taken by that. So he says, "You know, you've got an A." He gave me A instead of F, that one instance. And I still remember part of the speech.

TI: 'Cause you, but you applied yourself, I mean, you really concentrated and you did something.

FS: Yeah, I found out that from that day on, I said to myself, if I do anything, if I want to do it, I can do it. I'm too lazy. So I found this out a lot later when I was in Japan.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.