We were to be quizzed on the dates of events in history. I didn’t see the value in memorizing dates like that, so I lightly wrote a list of dates on my desk in pencil and just memorized the order of the events.

I was outside playing on the blacktop at recess. Sharon Meyers came out loudly chanting “Hannah Jennings cheats on tests! Hannah Jennings cheats on tests!” I hotly denied it, and she told everyone about the numbers on my desk, which I also denied. Then she led me and what seemed to be the entire school into the classroom to prove I cheated. As I walked I franticly tried to come up with a response, but what could I say? We poured into the classroom where we found… that my desk was clean.

A miracle. A compassionate teacher? My guardian angel? All I know is that I was never tempted to cheat on a test again.

This experience saved me in high school. The yearbook staff had a copy of a test from a morning class. We used it as a study guide because the teacher gave different tests to different classes. However, it turned out that we got the same one. I approached the teacher and told her that I’d seen the test, and she gave me an alternative from her other morning class. 

The next day there was a school assembly to announce that there had been cheating, and that those responsible were to withdraw from the National Honor Society. I asked the teacher if this included me: it did not. I couldn’t imagine telling my father I had been caught cheating, so a belated thank you to Sharon Meyers.

(Our mascot was a cowpuncher because, it is said, the football team used to have to practice on a field shared with cows.)