Pages

Monday, May 23, 2011

Taking a day off.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of celebrating graduation with several wonderful and intelligent folks. While at lunch, my former advisor mentioned that he had taken his daughters out of school for a fun day at town lake. Another professor, who may be one of the best reading teachers in the country suggested that he should have asked them to write a persuasive essay before agreeing to a day off from school, he countered that he didn't want to be "that dad". She persisted and suggested that each child write a list of ideas about how to spend the day.
She added that one of the biggest problems with most of the writing done in schools is that it isn't authentic. She added that children needed more meaningful writing opportunities were the purpose for writing was authentic. I was inspired. Today when Jack came home from school, I told him if he could write down 5 ideas about how to spend the day we could take a day off from school this week. Here is his list.
1. go to the pool
2. dool (duel- this is our favorite Yugi-oh card game).
3. go to tochees (Torchy's - a local taco place).
4. go to peese prc (go to Pease Park).
5. do art
6. slep late (sleep late)
7. go.... (Mom, can I just put those three dots to mean go to Target and get a luncheable?).
Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Heather said...

love it!! If I can come up w/ a list almost as good as Jack's can I have a day off too?? Miss you friend!!
-Heather

Doug said...

I get to take 5 days a week off. It is a great feeling to be able to decide what I want to do every day.