Hillbilly Elegy

The teacher was even more
impressed, and my competitor
triumphantly collected not two but three
pieces of candy. The teacher spoke
briefly of multiplication and asked if
anyone else knew such a thing existed.
None of us raised a hand. For my part, I
was crushed. I returned home and burst
into tears. I was certain my ignorance
was rooted in some failure of character.
I just felt stupid.
It wasn’t my fault that until that day I
had never heard the word
“multiplication.” It wasn’t something I’d
learned in school, and my family didn’t
sit around and work on math problems.
But to a little kid who wanted to do well