103 posts tagged “son”
Is the title of the 2-page essay son finished, after 2 days, on Macbeth. An effort interspaced often with side trips to Facebook (I'm just checking to see if any of my English class mates are on -line now, so chill!).
The premise, that the gender roles of Macbeth and his wife are reversed for most to the drama, is an interesting one. I just wonder if he came up with it by himself or was the idea borrowed from an on-line website.
Interesting use of words too. Had to rewrite a couple of passages in which he describes Macbeth as 'freaking out.', or that Macbeth is a 'wimp'. More intriguing is, is this a window in to his view of men & women? Have wondered as of late, if son is channeling the thoughts of his less than enlightened uncle, Pound Salt on this matter.
Son is writing a paper on Macbeth, and he supposedly has read it. Noticed on his FaceBook page, he's groaned how much he hates Macbeth.
He asked me last night about a certain character (Banquo) Searched my mind, but all I can come up with about the plot for son was, Macbeth was generally a nice guy, but had The Wife From Hell, kills the king, and then gets his in the end. Concise enough? :-)
But more to the point, there are a couple of things which are regrettable. First is I am guessing his lit. teacher is one of the brother/sisterhood of all lit. teachers, who teach their subject, with an air of 'If you can't appreciate these great works, then so much worse for you, you cretin', making the subject for most students, including moi, about as fun and cutting away a bad hangnail on one's big toe.
The other is, and a point I've only recently understood, is that yes lit., should be taught to bring kids into contact with good works of literature, but also that it should be impressed on students that the real purpose of delving into depth of character or plot is to have kids develop interpretative and analytical skills, skills they can use almost anywhere later on. It's a shame this is not impressed on kids and a shame son doesn't recognize that now too.
Is what son still calls it. He got ambitious last night and made these two, and also decided later to get an early start on Thanksgiving.
Have a neighbor 'round the corner with a nice(r) house, much bigger lot, 2 large yellow labs, whose barking resonates far and wide, and a number of large trees.
Guess yesterday was leaf raking /bagging day for them; here we are supposed to bag leaves in plastic bags (so what about the hundreds of thousands of bags that need to decompose??) and set them out on the curb for collection.
Well after they were finished, and I am sure after the sun had set, someone -not me!, rearranged the trash bags across the street and you can see in the less than perfect pix son took that for some reason, Vox will let me upload, but not post in the body of this entry (this has happened before too!).
Son was beside himself with the humor of it all. Me, perhaps being older can appreciate the humor, but told son this prank could also lead to an accident -like someone not noticing it until the last minute, applying the brakes hard, and losing control of the car. And I'll bet he'd be less than amused were it our home.
Son's part of this exercise was up on the screen when I came down this morning. It's intentional as he wants me to proof it. I am at a loss to explain why, but son has never learned to write. Not writing with style and flourish, but just write period. He's literally a living in the flesh poster child for 'Why Johnny can't write in college'. Not to say I'm a John Dunne, I've noticed slips of mine in this blog from time to time.
But that is not the point, in reading (and proofing) it, I saw there were things he & I both agree on (that he's a people person and no one stays a stranger for long with him) and at least one eye-opener
for me; that he credits lacrosse with allowing him to overcome his social awkwardness and become a more friendly and outward going person.
Whaddya know, I've actually did one thing right.
I am supposed to provide son's guidance counselor with information to the questions shown below so she can form a snapshot of him to provide as a recommendation for the schools son will apply to. Have the feeling of doing someone else's work, but at the same time, she looks after many, many other students.
The more we get into the college admissions process, the more gaming I sense and can't believe colleges, those that require letters of recommendation that is, aren't aware of this, which makes the whole exercise seem pointless.
Have made good headway into this 'homework' and hope to finish up today. The questions posed to me (and parents of other seniors) are:
1. In what areas in the past 2 years, has your student grown intellectually, emotionally & socially? How have those changes defined his character?
2. What do you consider to be his/her most outstanding traits? Please feel free to use anecdotal examples.
3. List 3 adjectives that describe your student and tell why they do?
4. If you were to write your own child's college recommendation, what would you say in the first paragraph that would prompt the reader to continue reading? WRITE THAT PARAGRAPH.
Well, yesterday we finally got son's 1st quarter Japanese grade, an 'A', the first he's gotten in the subject. After all the years of hectoring from his mother, you'd think she'd have said something -like 'Hey, you did it, I knew could!'. Nope, which did not go unnoticed by son. So the box score is 1 'B' and the rest, 'A's'. Almost night and day from his junior year performance, which wasn't horrible, but was desultory. Its sobering to realize that may have been influenced by my own unemployed and at home situation.
I 'get' the why's of lack of fulsome praise from his mother and in general why Asian parents don't jump up and down for joy when their children bring home outstanding academic reports; its 当り前. But this isn't Asia, as I have reminded his mother and that it wouldn't hurt to show son how pleased you are with his school work. The reaction to that has been along the lines of 'so he should be praised for even having a successful bowel movement?'
One of the many things I have learned in life is, life is a matter of balances and that sure any parent especially one suffering from 親ばか can go overboard with the praise for children. On the other hand, culture aside, people are people and a good word after some good performance won't bring the world order down either.
Have always wondered how healthy the reluctance of Japanese/Asian parents to show some outward joy and appreciation of their children's' performance to their children really is and how such affects personality?
Son is still steaming about that Japan club. Spent most of last night, with only a break for his calculus homework, creating a PowerPoint presentation on the Japanese kana system to use at the next club meeting. He wouldn't even stop to sit down for dinner; a trait he displayed early in life when he'd focus on Leggo, building something from loose blocks or putting together a kit and would not stop until he finished/was satisfied.
What really got his goat, or whatever was being 'called out' as he puts it by what he called 2 white girls(his words), for not knowing Japanese language as well as they think they do. Granted he has a far better grasp of the language, but he makes mistakes too; like referring to lower classmates as ９年生、１１年生, etc., when it should be高校１年生, etc. Likewise he usedクラブ大統領 when perhaps it should be クラブリーダ or クラブ部長(?).
I am disappointed in him focusing on race though. I've spoken to him on a couple of occasions about what I see as racial balkanization here, that here one is conditioned to think in terms of what you are defines you first, not who you are, and how silly that all is. An important point given his racial/ cultural mix. Need to find an opening to talk about that again.
But on the bright side, while son was also using girls as a bit of a pejorative he wasn't going as far as his uncle Pound Salt goes in 'referring to' women. Second, spending a school night putting a PowerPoint presentation on his own is not a bad use of time (wish he'd show the same in prepping for the ACT/SAT tests he is to take next month). It could be worse; Son has told me some of the kids he hung around with in elementary school are doing drugs now.
Remembered yesterday, an observation of Auto Gal's of son during one of large international automobile manufacturer #2's pool parties of yore.
Picked him up yesterday from school as he had stayed to attend a meeting of a Japan Club and he went to see what it was all about. He got in and I could see the smoke coming from his ears. What was up? Well, there was an election of who would run the club and he lost by one vote. He said he wouldn't be so angry had he lost on ability, but he told me the choice was between him and 2 girls (one who came up with the idea and her friend).. The girls I was told carried the day with her friends, so it was popularity contest in his words.
My fatherly comment was , 1.) It was their idea , so you'd have to expect them to want to lead the club, 2.) This sort of stuff happens a lot as you will find as you go on in life, 3.) If you had been chosen, you'd have been expected to shoulder the burden for work and would you have been willing to do that? (He said, 'yes') and last, perhaps he can work with them or around them. Had to repeat this number of time last night as he kept ranting about this again and again.
Alpha Male indeed.
Am getting the silent treatment from son this morning; there's a OMG I must have paint ball gun someone has for sale on Craigslist. Now he has enough money in his bank account for it and then leave him about $200 in change.
But despite him being 18+ and its his money, I've put my foot down and said absolutely 'no' in bold, italicized and underlined. So he's throwing a hissy fit.
Wonder what'd be like if I had an 18+ year old daughter who I told she could not buy whatever.........?
