My son loves learning; he is the kind of kid who sees the puzzle or the problem and enjoys the thrill of discovery, of connecting the dots... except in English. The number of plausible answers in English invalidates the challenge; the paradigms with which he evaluates and experiences the world are largely unique and as such, he rarely sees the same symbolism or characterization motives as a literary critic. He also hates to be wrong - especially when he cannot find a logical reason why he is wrong. So while his AP Language teacher is one of his favorites, he really can't stand the class.
Yes, his mother is an English teacher and small pieces of me take visceral hits when he emotes about fifth hour. In my world, many plausible answers make me feel safe, but not in his.
Today, we hit one of those maturity markers where we recognize and rise above our limitations and make the best of it. He took a practice multiple choice AP test yesterday. Historically, the kids get to review their answers and collaborate with their peers to defend their own answers and/or consider other answers. It's a great experience in critical thinking.
Usually, the diatribe is all about how he won the argument, but not today. When I asked about AP Lang today and how the collaboration went this was his concilitory reply:
"Well, I haven't been successful with my answers on these tests all semester, and the girls in the back of the room are pretty. So I decided if I can't score points on the paper, I would go score points with the pretty girl. I didn't even argue my answers; I just went with want the pretty girl said."
Proof, that while he looks like my side of the family, he is definitely Joey Witcher's son.
#bestrongandcourageous