Educating Mark

I blame Braeden.

He said it's not his fault because he doesn't share Mark's skewed opinions but I still blame Braeden.  Mark has been marinating in a stew of Braeden's strongly held opinions and arguments all his life.  And that tendency to make an argument is seeping in.

A few days ago, Mark was despondent about his grammar.  It was just so MUCH.  He got exactly no sympathy from his mother.  I told him every other 5th grader in America was sitting at a desk doing similar schoolwork.  "It's what you do," I said, "get used to it."  I said that on my way down the stairs to pull my bread out of the oven.  (Most 5th graders' teachers aren't leaving the classroom to tend to their bread, but still.  The other 5th graders are doing grammar. Or they should be.)

Mark was in a snit though.  He doesn't easily let go of perceived wrongs.  At lunch he said, "I think that school is against my constitutional rights."

"I don't think so," I said.

"Can I finish my argument?" he asked.  (See, that's Braeden's influence, right there.)
           
"OK."

He went on to outline (in detail) how school was depriving him of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When he was quite finished, I asked him if I could present my argument.  He said yes.  I said, "First I have a question. What would you say to someone who needed a life saving vaccination but was afraid the needle would hurt?"

He gave me a look of miserable recognition.  He knew where I was going with that one.

Then I asked him specific questions about his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and asked him if any of those would be possible without his dad's job.

"No," he said.

"And would Dad have his job without an education?"

"No," he said, defeated.

I didn't point out that because of my education, I'm able to provide his education.

(Somehow I don't think he was in the mood to appreciate that fact.)

Every day homeschooling is this warm and friendly and loving time we spend together.  Or not.