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This one just makes me laugh...


So I got home yesterday evening to find my wife shaking her head. She said that Elise had some news for me...

At school kids read books and take tests based on their reading. They earn points based on the level of reading and their comprehension of the text. It also has to do with the length of the book.

We bought Ammon a Hobbit video game based on the Tolkien book. It's really a cute game, and Ammon really enjoyed playing it. Elise would sit and watch him play. I did that a lot myself - I was never very good at video games but strangely enjoyed watching others play. It was kind of like a movie... Elise cheers Ammon on and gives ideas or strategies when stumped. She gets her turn to play, but is generally content to watch. Like I said, I was much the same way...

So Elise gets the idea that since she is intimately familiar with the story line of the book from the video game, which is very similar in almost all respects to the book, she should take the test for points. It doesn't have anything to do with her grade or anything. It's just for fun...

She aced the test.

She's a good reader, and she has passed many tests like this in the past. This was the first time (and hopefully the LAST time) she has done something like this. It's so funny! How did this thought ever even enter her brain - that she would go ahead and take a test for a book she's never read... AND ace it...

I don't know whether to praise her for her memory and comprehension (of a video game!) or chastise her for being sneaky and "cheating". It's like those folks who read the cliff's notes and ace the test...

What ya gonna do?!?

Comments

Bill and Valerie Cobabe said…
The answer is obvious: buy more video games and less books.

Dad
May 15, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Bill Cobabe said…
HA!! Nice one, dad!

I just held her and laughed and said don't do it again. But I am still impressed that she even thought to do it in the first place. Scary. Clever, but scary...
May 15, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Bill and Valerie Cobabe said…
The trick is to encourage them to do well within the system while still helping them learn to think outside the box.

It is not entirely clear to me what she did that she should not do again. She learned the material, even though it was thourgh a non-traditional medium.

Isn't the purpose of learning things to get information and learn how to use it?

Or is it to learn to answer test questions.

There is a delicate balance here somewhere. Personally, I always tried to come down a little on the side of independent thought. And I am pleased to note that my kids turned our pretty good. On the other hand, too much free thinking can lead to apostasy if it is not carefully channeled.

I am glad you are the dad and I am the grandpa. I have a much better job description.
May 15, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Jeanette said…
Hey, don't knock the cliff's notes test acing til you try it. It's the only way I ever made it through the Moby Dick section in English!
May 15, 2009 at 8:50 PM
LivingstonClan said…
Ya--I think she pulls that sneakiness from you AND Young Shin. It's always the "quiet ones" you know. I am positive Young Shin has a real sneaky side most of us have never seen! I love it--sounds like something I might have done--once upon a time. What a cute girl Elise is. I drove past your old house last night (after dropping my babysitters off) and it really made me miss you guys. The Miller girls said their brither wants Ammons address again. P.S.
May 16, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Anonymous said…
I say just love them.

I think that's what Dad always did.

I remember once when I wrecked the car on the way to a shopping trip, but shopped all day, then when I got home and told him, he just said how sorry that I have had to carry that all day with me...

We did stupid stuff as a kids (what she did was brillant), and thats what kids do. Our job is to love them. XO
May 18, 2009 at 9:24 PM
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