As part of Xavier's homeschooling, I am reading Understood Betsy by Doroty Canfield Fisher to him. First, this is a delightful book that we both enjoy very much, and I highly recommend it.
Yesterday, I read something that said, much more clearly than I've ever heard before, why we shouldn't worry about what grade someone is in, and just let them learn:
"Why - why," said Elizabeth Ann, "I don't know what I am at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-grade spelling, what grade am I?"
The teacher laughed, "You aren't any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You're just yourself, aren't you? What difference does it make what grade you're in? And what's the use of your reading little baby things too easy for you just because you don't know your multiplication table?
"Well, for goodness' sakes!" ejaculated Elizabeth Ann, feeling very much as though somebody had stood her suddenly on her head.
"What's the matter?" asked the teacher again.
This time Elizabeth Ann didn't answer because she herself didn't know what the matter was. But I do, and I'll tell you. The matter was that never before had she known what she was doing in school. She had always thought she was there to pass from one grade to another and she was ever so startled to get a glimpse of the fact that she was there to learn how to read and write and cipher and generally use her mind, so she could take care of herself when she came to be grown up.
Hence the reason that my children (and I) have no idea what grade they're in. If you ask Xavier what grade he's in, he'll reply with something along these lines...
"Well... I'm doing 4th grade math, 2nd grade reading, and I hate writing." And, that about sums it up.
1 comments:
I so agree with this. This is one of the reasons we started homeschooling.
Julie
Post a Comment