Some good news
Today's good news is that Christopher is not failing English. Every positive grade helps at this point.
He is also not failing drama. In fact, at the official opening of the new drama room at school last night, when different classes presented "previews" of the plays they will be doing this year, Christopher was fantastic as Caliban from The Tempest. Twice. Since they have two different casts (some roles are even cast three times), it was planned for each cast to perform just a small section of the play, but since the other Caliban was ill, Christopher learned his lines and the staging for that section yesterday afternoon to take over at the last minute. Several people asked about how he is doing, because he didn't really look well, but his motivation was obviously strong enough to carry him through it extremely well. We will probably have to remind him more and more frequently over the next few months that he does not need to walk with a stoop and be unpleasant when he is not on stage. As much as I enjoyed watching him play Caliban, I don't think I want to live with Caliban.
Patrick is also not failing English. In fact, he is working diligently on overwhelming his English teacher with his extensive vocabulary. Apparently she suspected that he might have used a number of terms in his report about the Great Depression (which he said greatly depressed him) that he got from Wikipedia without thoroughly understanding them. I couldn't blame her for questioning that, because I had a few misgivings about it myself (even though Patrick was so happy to have finally grasped the concept of deficit spending, which I had never realized was a problem for him before, that he felt compelled to explain to me in exhausting detail), but she just diplomatically asked him to simplify his report. As I watched him do that, I was seriously impressed to see that he did have a very firm grasp of all the economic terms that he used, because he was able to explain every one of them quite clearly with no hesitation at all. Since then he has been giving particular attention to his vocabulary and phrasing to prove to his English teacher that he does have that much of a command of the language. Fortunately for all concerned, the boys' English teacher has a wonderful sense of humor.
He is also not failing drama. In fact, at the official opening of the new drama room at school last night, when different classes presented "previews" of the plays they will be doing this year, Christopher was fantastic as Caliban from The Tempest. Twice. Since they have two different casts (some roles are even cast three times), it was planned for each cast to perform just a small section of the play, but since the other Caliban was ill, Christopher learned his lines and the staging for that section yesterday afternoon to take over at the last minute. Several people asked about how he is doing, because he didn't really look well, but his motivation was obviously strong enough to carry him through it extremely well. We will probably have to remind him more and more frequently over the next few months that he does not need to walk with a stoop and be unpleasant when he is not on stage. As much as I enjoyed watching him play Caliban, I don't think I want to live with Caliban.
Patrick is also not failing English. In fact, he is working diligently on overwhelming his English teacher with his extensive vocabulary. Apparently she suspected that he might have used a number of terms in his report about the Great Depression (which he said greatly depressed him) that he got from Wikipedia without thoroughly understanding them. I couldn't blame her for questioning that, because I had a few misgivings about it myself (even though Patrick was so happy to have finally grasped the concept of deficit spending, which I had never realized was a problem for him before, that he felt compelled to explain to me in exhausting detail), but she just diplomatically asked him to simplify his report. As I watched him do that, I was seriously impressed to see that he did have a very firm grasp of all the economic terms that he used, because he was able to explain every one of them quite clearly with no hesitation at all. Since then he has been giving particular attention to his vocabulary and phrasing to prove to his English teacher that he does have that much of a command of the language. Fortunately for all concerned, the boys' English teacher has a wonderful sense of humor.
posted by Aileen at Tuesday, January 24, 2006
2 Comments:
Perhaps Patrick should be the president of the United States. Our current president clearly has no grasp of the English language-although he seems to have mastered deficit spending...
I don't know...maybe Christopher is entitled to some stooping and disagreeable moments! Wonderful news about English class. If it makes you feel better Christopher, Joseph is on his third try at Algegra II...It's not that he doesn't understand it-he just doesn't care! But he has an "A" in advanced water sports and weightlifting. I guess we all have our priorities!
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