This made the first cut last Friday.
I cracked up imagining Jake tiring of the essay questions and resorting to "Who knows" as his final answer. I imagined his boredom with the silly, repetitive line of questioning. His father and I enjoyed a good chuckle.
Then Dan asked, "So did the dog get the bone?"
"I don't know," I answered, "I didn't bother to read the story." Of course the next thing I did was read the story, reprinted below for your reading pleasure.
Struggling to put aside the incredibly annoying overuse of "teeny-tiny," I diligently searched for the answer to whether the dog got the bone.
I should assure you that one of my super skills is reading comprehension--I rocked the national exams. In addition, I'm fairly good at sentence diagramming, and I used to analyze legal documents for a living.
Here's my (professional) opinion: Who knows whether that damn, teeny-tiny dog got the bone.
I clearly comprehended the story, but what I cannot comprehend is why Jake's answer was marked incorrect. I assume this sort of worksheet is testing first grader's reading comprehension, but I can't see what type of answer he was supposed to give.
The voice is never identified. And DOGS CANNOT TALK. Is she dreaming? Is there an intruder? There is simply no way to know. All of which Jake clearly comprehended in his succinct answer.
But aren't there bigger questions here? Such as, how did this kind of crappy worksheet ever make it past the editing process to get published? What exactly are my kids reading at school? And how can I now avoid hyper-analyzing all the schoolwork papers?
9 comments:
Thats great! I love it when little ones speak their minds and make us all look like too smart of fools
I remember reading this story before, and I always assumed the voice was the ghost of the grave from which the bone was stolen. But how silly; there is no way to answer that question! Who knows is a perfect answer as far as I'm concerned.
I remember once when Noah had a homework assignment in 3rd grade that demanded a few similar answers (answers which could not be found in the reading). I found out later that the teacher had thrown everyone's scores out, once she reviewed it herself.
Too funny! That is one smart boy you have there. Honestly I thought the same way as Sara, the ghost came back to get her. I guess its a tiny tiny messed up story to be sharing with kids.
I'm with the others. I assumed it was a ghost... Smart boy you've got there!
Tyson's not the greatest at reading comprehension, but so far I haven't seen something that had no obvious answer. I would be very bothered by this.
I loved this post.
I laughed out loud when I read this.. You sure have one smart kid on your hands... Love it.
why would anyone right this? this teeny tiny story is entirely tedious.
Just showed this to Matt and he chuckled the whole way through it! Love you, and your family.
I read this yesterday but didn't have a chance to comment. I laughed at the whole thing but...at the same time I was wondering why his teacher marked it wrong, too. His answer was completely correct. Maybe they wanted Jake's opinion as to whether the dog got the bone or not but the question should have been something along the lines of, "Do you think the dog got the bone?"
His, "Who knows" made me laugh. I also loved hearing your professional opinion.
That story is just sick and wrong!! What are they teaching your kids there at your school?!
If it were me, I would correct the paper, in red ink, and send it back to his teacher. Of course, that is me, and it wouldn't be the first time that I sent corrected papers back to the teacher (usually spelling errors in the teachers' memos)! :o)
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