When a teacher makes an assignment...just smile and do it.If that assignment involves memorizing the Declaration of Independence...smile wide and know you can do it.
Even if you're ten and you think the assignment's too hard and you really want to tell your teacher "I'm not doing it,"...force that smile and make yourself do it.
Because when that assignment comes due and you didn't do it, the teacher will be unhappy when she hears you say, "I'm not doing it," then she will call your parents and they will be very unhappy, and that means your life immediately becomes extra stinky.
Be assured that even though the due date has passed and you already got the zero, your parents will still make you memorize it and your world will become all about the Declaration of Independence.
There will be no TV, no play dates, and no telephone privileges. You will study late into the night and early in the morning. You will study in the car as we drive, while you do the dishes, and while you walk with your family around a store. You will repeat the Declaration of Independence over and over and over until you know every word and can say it forward and backward.
You will come to hate the Declaration of Independence, yet you will be able to recite it from memory. You will appreciate the value it must possess and you will have found a new respect for, if for nothing else, the big, hard-to-say words you really don't understand.
Because obviously you underestimated the importance of this assignment and to your surprise, the after-shocks have been overwhelming.
So from now on, accept the assignment, smile, and study hard because goodness knows when you're ten, life is too short and your time is too precious to risk the consequences of doing anything else.
8 comments:
All I can think to say is "oh no!"
Ouch! lol!!!
Man, and I just make my son memorize poems. I think I am going to make him memorize the De. of Ind. next! I am so excited! I am so glad I read this today!
He is going to hate you.
Geez! What an assignment! That's one that if my son brought it home I'd have to question the necessity of it, but of course, I'd smile and help him do it.
We didn't have to memorize it until the 8th grade. Of course, I memorized it on the bus ride to school the morning it was due.
Do you think he learned his lesson?
Yes, she learned her lesson. Evidently, it's been researched and proven that children at this age can memorize large chunks of information. This is also the A Beka curriculum and it seems to be a little more intense than our public school curriculum. She recited it after studying it for three days. Note, though, that the teacher gave them almost seven weeks to learn it when it was originally assigned. She did it though and all is much better...now. LOL!
Oh my....I am cracking up. As soon as you started, I could see where this story was going :). This is SO Ashlyn....we're just not to those "big" assignments yet....but she already tries her best to avoid working too hard on the "easy" ones! :) Thanks for sharing! :)
Libby
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