I got into trouble when I was about 8 years old for making up a little rule to help me remember the sound the schwa makes.   

A schwa says "uh" like a Squaw says "Ugh". It wasn't that it was unPC (political correctness did not exist in the mid 1960s especially regards Native Americans). It was that I had mentioned it to a fellow student and the eavesdropping teacher thought I was making a joke about the lesson.

Thanks for that unpleasant little trip down bad memories lane.