09 September 2008

Homework - A Survival Story

"Mama, I have to do this multiplication using the Traditional Method, the one that's been used for hundreds of years, like when you were in school." I regard him silently, considering whether he is cute enough, today, to live. I decide to give him the benefit of the doubt and he instantly abuses the privilege, "Did you have to do it this way because there weren't any calculators?"

"We had calculators. We were just smarter than kids are now - we didn't need to use calculators to get the answers right."

"Mama! I can do these problems without a calculator." I just smirk at him. Incensed, he whips his pencil into position and cranks out the answers. I arch an eyebrow at the completed assignment, impressed. I hope taunting will be as effective for the whole school year!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow! I'm so impressed. So proud! Please tell him we spelled without dictionaries and looked up social studies and science in the encyclopedia on paper...no Google!!!

bethany actually said...

Ha! I bow to your technique. I'll have to remember that one when I'm trying to get Annalie to do her homework one day.

Lady Epiphany said...

We had to memorize all of those friggin multiplication tables. Do they have bubble sheets anymore? I HATED bubble sheets. In 4th grade, we had to do them add/sub/mult/div until we got 100% on each of them.

Anonymous said...

give him an abacus and explain that's how you did it in the old days.

Lady Epiphany said...

Actually, now that I think of it, I may see if I can get me some of them bubble sheets...I could mix it up writing lines...

Amanda said...

You rock!

karen said...

@epiphany: what's a Bubble Sheet??

Unknown said...

aaaah my dear aunt sally...you ancient cave woman you...LOVE the we were smarter than kids now adays line....my sis is so clever! lol...

Lady Epiphany said...

They were folders made out of card stock that held an 8 by 5 1/2 sheet of paper inside. The questions were printed on the card with a circle punched out below for the answer. There were 100 questions on each card. It was timed, though I don't recall how much time we had. Addition was red, subtraction was yellow, multiplication was green, and division was blue. In 3rd and 4th grade, we did a daily drill. The students who'd gotten 100 percent on each of them got to read during that time.

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