Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that during 5th grade at the Escuela Americana, I read a storybook in the library about a girl who lived in the country, she moves to the city, there she feels the culture shock generally experienced upon moving to a new place, and also meets a new friend. She tries to talk about her experience with her new friend in the city, and is sharply rebuked and told that the city friend does not want to her anything negative said about people, by which this story serves as an example of how not to gossip and say or repeat bad things about people. So by reading this story in the 5th grade we learn to never say anything negative about anyone. I remember discussing this book with someone, I forget who. And that works well for a children's storybook, but in real life sometimes it is hard to live in a Pollyanna land where nothing bad ever happens. Sometimes we need to know stuff, to fine tune our perceptions of real life, and to develop a correct assessment of what is happening around us.  Although I did enjoy reading the Pollyanna books, the name of Pollyanna's husband was James, but do not remember taking any vow of joining the Pollyanna club.