Twenty-eight-year-old Elaine Stafford is a very successful journalist. In elementary school Elaine loved English and always got excellent grades on her compositions. Everything changed when she was in the seventh grade and her English teacher retired. From the ages of 13 to 16 her new English teacher told her that her compositions shouldn't be so imaginative.
"Just before my 16th birthday, I realized that if I started writing boring compositions, I might get better grades. So, that's what I did ... and I started getting excellent grades and comments like: 'This is much better!
"To be fair, though, the teacher did help me in two ways. He taught me that there was more than one way of writing compositions and that I had to learn to accept criticism. If l hadn't learned these lessons, my early days as a journalist would have been much more difficult.