Rest assured, I did not interpret any hostility from you (towards me) on the matter. After I had sent my initial reply, I had thought about it myself and yeah there were a lot of times where people were painfully slow. I'd stumble over my words when reading, but I'd make an effort—the main thing that would trip me up is trying to have a good speaking voice and inflection to sound engaging, only to realize the tone for the sentence was completely off halfway through!

But then there were the people who struggled with nearly every word, and the pace would slow to a crawl. More often than not, I felt bad for those people and their situation than anything else, but it was also frustrating. It was especially bad when one was expected to read along strictly "with the class". I wasn't nearly as avid a reader in school as you, but I did get in mild trouble a few times for reading several chapters ahead of the class. I'm sorry Mrs. Thomas, you should have picked a less interesting book for class if you didn't want me reading it on my own time!

The situation with the school "not being able to afford" basic prizes to reward reading, then dropping fat stacks on a stadium is pretty fucked. What a harsh reflection of our society's values.