State of the Union
Danielle Conger
Last night, I made two big bowls of popcorn and climbed into my bed with my two oldest to watch the State of the Union Address. Julia (5) pretty much just wanted to snuggle and fall asleep with us, but Emily (6) is very interested in presidents and government.
We're watching it, eating popcorn, talking about different things like how old she would have to be to be president, nuclear bombs, and all kinds of other things. Then Bush starts talking about his No Child Left Behind program and the mandatory testing to make sure children have basic skills. Well, Emily is almost in tears at the thought of "testing"--why is he doing this, how could he make children take tests, that is so unfair, yadda, yadda. Really working herself up over this, which I think is because of the word's relation to "blood test" in her mind. So, I ask her if she knew what a test was. With tears in her eyes, she just gulps, "no."
So I explain to her what tests are. "Boring!," she says, and her first thought is for our 10 yo ps-ed neighbor. "Do you think Emy is watching this? I have to tell her!" <lol> So, Emily is now extremely indignant about the whole No Child Left Behind program and doesn't understand why George Bush has to meddle with kids lives or why all children can't be unschooled.
--danielle
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
We're watching it, eating popcorn, talking about different things like how old she would have to be to be president, nuclear bombs, and all kinds of other things. Then Bush starts talking about his No Child Left Behind program and the mandatory testing to make sure children have basic skills. Well, Emily is almost in tears at the thought of "testing"--why is he doing this, how could he make children take tests, that is so unfair, yadda, yadda. Really working herself up over this, which I think is because of the word's relation to "blood test" in her mind. So, I ask her if she knew what a test was. With tears in her eyes, she just gulps, "no."
So I explain to her what tests are. "Boring!," she says, and her first thought is for our 10 yo ps-ed neighbor. "Do you think Emy is watching this? I have to tell her!" <lol> So, Emily is now extremely indignant about the whole No Child Left Behind program and doesn't understand why George Bush has to meddle with kids lives or why all children can't be unschooled.
--danielle
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]