I then start reading Angela’s Ashes while Esmee studies for Earth Science. I breeze through those 11 equations in about 40 minutes and even correct Esmee when she gets one wrong. We are simplifying equations, which involves reducing (–18m 2n) 2 × (–(1/6)mn 2) to –54m 5n 4, which I get the hang of again after Esmee’s good instructions. Seventy-nine pages while scanning for usable material-for a magazine essay or for homework-seems like at least two hours of reading.īut the math is easier than I thought. So a good day of reading for me, assuming I like the book and I’m not looking for quotable passages, is between 50 and 100 pages. Reading and writing is what I do for a living, but in my middle age, I’ve slowed down. (Esmee’s algebra class is doing a section on polynomials, a word I haven’t heard in decades.) We also have to read 79 pages of Angela’s Ashes and find “three important and powerful quotes from the section with 1–2 sentence analyses of its significance.” There is also the Earth Science test tomorrow on minerals. So I am relieved when she tells me she doesn’t have much tonight. During the school week, she averages three to four hours of homework a night and six and a half hours of sleep. What I am interested in is what my daughter is doing during those nightly hours between 8 o’clock and midnight, when she finally gets to bed. I’m not interested in the debates over teaching to the test or No Child Left Behind. There are standardized tests, and everyone-students, teachers, schools-is being evaluated on those tests. I have found, at both schools, that whenever I bring up the homework issue with teachers or administrators, their response is that they are required by the state to cover a certain amount of material. We moved from Pacific Palisades, California, where Esmee also had a great deal of homework at Paul Revere Charter Middle School in Brentwood. My wife and I have noticed since she started there in February of last year that she has a lot of homework. When I ask Esmee what this actually means, she gives me her homework credo.Įsmee is in the eighth grade at the NYC Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies, a selective public school in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. “Minerals have crystal systems which are defined by the # of axis and the length of the axis that intersect the crystal faces.” That’s how the notes start, and they only get murkier after that. Memorization, not rationalization. That is the advice of my 13-year-old daughter, Esmee, as I struggle to make sense of a paragraph of notes for an upcoming Earth Science test on minerals. “You were right.This post was originally published at the Atlantic on Sept. Elizabeth kept thinking about all the ways God blessed her and her family.Īt the end, Dad leaned down. She was feeling the Holy Ghost!ĭad started humming. After a while, her feelings began to change. Her fingers started to find the notes more easily. She thought about all the things she was thankful for. “Think about what you’re playing,” Dad had said.Įlizabeth decided to try it. It was all about giving thanks to God.Įlizabeth turned on the electric keyboard and started playing. The sheet music for “Fa‘afetai i Le Atua” sat on the keyboard. Elizabeth took off her sandals and followed him. Then he took off his sandals and went inside to help with dinner.
“Maybe it would help to think about what you’re playing.” “I don’t know if I feel like practicing today,” she said.ĭad stood up. Her fingers had to work to find the notes. She already loved singing with her family. More than anything, Elizabeth wanted to learn piano so she could play songs in church. And, speaking of music …”Įlizabeth knew what he was going to say.
“I’m serious! Good music can always help your day go better. It was a beautiful song that Dad sang to Mom all the time. He started singing a song that Elizabeth knew well. “Not very good.” She walked past the noisy pigs in their yard and sat next to Dad on the porch.ĭad listened as she told him all about her hard day. She twisted the pink flower into her hair and walked home.Įlizabeth looked down. In Samoa she could always find beautiful flowers. Who invented bad days anyway?Įlizabeth plucked a hibiscus flower.
Lagi said something mean to her at school. Elizabeth kicked an empty coconut shell down the dirt road.