I have a very sound theory

My son (who is doing very well in 10th grade at a Jesuit school) has a paper due this Monday on the Boston Massacre. I asked him "what is this paper going to be about?" He said he wasn't sure, but "probably about how the Boston Massacre increased tensions between the United States and Britain."

I grappled with the implications of his statement, and then with my parental responsibilities.

"Is that a point that's even worth making?" I inquired. "It's kind of obvious, isn't it?" He said "well, I have to say something about it." Apparently, merely having a theory is good enough as long as you can take 5 pages of double-spaced text to lay it all out. So with paltry deference to his planned approach, I told him his observations would carry the same weight as the ones made by A. Elk (Miss.).

Comments

[TPB, Esq.]

Classic Python reference. I had forgotten that sketch.

You do realize, by the way, just how dangerous your son's going to be once the Jesuits finish teaching him rhetoric/debate?

[pops]

On the debate team in high school we feared the kids from the Jesuit high school in Denver. They won the NATIONALS every year.

Related note - my son's elementary school here in Seattle just by luck of the draw wound up with a large number of ESL and reading disabled kids. I'm one of 12 parents who have been pressed into immediate service to help in the reading lab.

We had an intensive training session on Thursday. The woman running the session said "Sound it out - no matter what sound it out - even if it doesn't sound right."

She came over for the one-on-one and said, "Say and odd word."

I said "k-ni-gh-t-s"

"GOOD CHOICE!" she says, "where did you get that?"

Obviously the woman was not a MP and the Holy Grail fan.

[Gary Petersen]

That would be "A, for Anne, Elk", right? Great reference, Ernie. Thanks.