Member-only story
Don’t Read Too Much Into It
My enthusiasm for formal education rose and fell like Icarus. The Bell curve occurred when my nascent steps into public performing were slapped down by bullying in the seventh grade. Until then, I was inherently a studious kid. The same principle has held true with both of my sons, a point that reverberated during a recent dinner conversation.
My 10-year-old is days away from graduating from fifth grade. He leaves elementary school to attend middle school in the fall, genially accompanied by a handful of his current classmates.
Last week, he remarked that — due to the dwindling number of days in the school year — it was unlikely that the teachers could complete their entire curriculum.
I asked how things were going in math. Between mouthfuls of chicken, he replied, “Oh, we’re not going to cover the last two units. There’s not enough time.”
“How’s that going to work next year,” I asked, “when your sixth grade teachers teach stuff based on those last two units? Are you going to say ‘Oh, my math teacher didn’t get around to those topics last year’?”
These were rhetorical questions, of course. It wasn’t even worth explaining the meaning of the word “rhetorical” to him.
The pandemic caused some of the delays. There were technical difficulties in making materials available…
