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July 28, 2004
Smart
In the last set of comments Liz talked about how she is amazed by young people these days. I agree with her wholeheartedly! I am constantly telling my kids how dumb I was at their age.
It’s true. It really is. I was dumb. In elementary classes I don’t remember caring about studying or what I was supposed to be learning in the classroom. In middle school things were better. I loved my middle school, but I do think that I could have had more challenging classes. High school was a complete waste of four years if you ask me. I don’t think I got anything useful out of it other than a diploma and meeting some very nice people.
Don’t get me wrong; I was happy I just didn’t care about academics. I made good grades in the classes that I had; the classes were probably not hard enough though.
Ashley, my eight year old daughter, has the brain that I never had until I was much, much older. She is a very good listener and she understands things that you wouldn’t expect an eight year old to understand. When she doesn’t understand a word or a concept, she asks questions. That’s something that I didn’t do nearly often enough.
I also made up my mind a long time ago that when I had kids no question would be off limits. No matter how young they are or how uncomfortable it makes me, if they are old enough to ask and to ponder then they are old enough to be given an answer. I believe that both of my kids feel this openness and I believe this has opened up their minds and made them more receptive to new ideas also.
Besides asking questions, we have also let her know that men like intelligent women. They don’t want someone who is dumb and silly and who knows nothing. We have told her that she should learn as much as possible. She understands this well I believe. She reads all the time and when she’s not reading, she’s looking at some old math, science, or history books that I keep around the house.
A new school year begins in two weeks and I am already wondering how long it will take the teacher to see how intelligent Ashley is. I know that she won’t be the only smart one in the class; I’m not that biased. I just want them to know that they can actually talk to her like a person. It usually doesn’t take them long to figure that out.
Posted by tami at July 28, 2004 11:22 AM
Comments
It is a joy to have pupils who will talk about things - education is changing so much now and for the better mostly!
Posted by: Miss L at July 30, 2004 8:06 AM