What are they teaching these days?


In which I am surprised at some things my kids don't know

How to be over- and under-educated at the same time: Sitting in church yesterday, #1-Son asked me why one of the Christmons on the tree had the word "fish" (he was reading the Greek) on it. So I told him. I know they're supposed to have taught him that in Sunday School back when he was in the upper elementary grades... Guess I need to tell the church's Head of Education that it isn't sticking.

When I asked Daughter what kind of jam she wanted on her PB&J sandwich this morning, she said, "Grape, of course. Any other kind is treason." I stood there blinking for a moment until it hit me. I said, "I think you mean 'blasphemy'." She said, "Oh, that's what that word means."

After breakfast, she tossed away her clementine peel and then held up her fingers to my nose and said, "Here, smell." Because I had peeled #2-Son's, I said, "I know, me too. It's nice." Then she hummed the first line of the song. I sung back, "You are lost and gone forever." She looked at me like I was nuts. I said, "You were humming My Darling Clementine. That's the next line in the chorus." I still got nothing but the 'You've sooo lost it' look, so I went on to start quoting the lyrics. After the first verse she said, "Oh my god, he lost his daughter?" I answered, "Well, it's actually sung by her boyfriend, who watched her drown because he couldn't swim," and her mouth fell open. Seriously, folks, I learned the words in elementary school, about the same time they taught us songs like There's a Hole in the Bucket and Billy Boy and Way Down Yonder in the Paw-Paw Patch. They're standard American Folk songs, as much a part of the country's history as the Gettysburg Address (and easier to memorize.) I thought everybody learned the words to Clementine and remembered at least the first verse (although the real story's in the third and fourth verses.)

Posted: Mon - December 8, 2008 at 07:47 AM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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