Formative moment in my life: When I was in fourth grade, a teacher asked for the children to name a contraction. She called on me: "shan't," I said. "No, that's not a word." Then she praised other kids who said the expected things. After class, . . . https://twitter.com/GrammarTable/status/1345553431168229382

I approached her bearing Webster's Third New International Dictionary. She refused to look at the entry for "shan't," telling me to go run and play (we were in recess). I was struck by the injustice of her attitude and her anti-intellectualism (though I didn't know that word).

Perhaps more than any other single event in my life, I can trace my impetus to become a lexicographer to that one. I've written about that event in various books ("Nino & Me," "Garner on Language and Writing," etc.).

I picked up on "shan't" from Mr. French on A Family Affair.