I had a pretty clear idea what I was going to do in my classes today, but then yesterday I received an email from an APS mailing list reminding me that today is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's first paper on relativity, containing (a form of) his famous equation E = mc2. So in celebration, I'm going to trash my planned lectures for the day and talk about Einstein instead. It actually dovetails quite nicely with what I'm doing in "Foundations of Physics"... not so much with "Astronomy", but... it's Einstein, so...
Oh, also... I'm wearing my Einstein tie. (Although I was unable to find my E = mc2 tie-tack.)
I spent most of yesterday lying about the house and recuperating while the wife took care of Important Parenting Business like doctor's appointments and teacher conferences. The teacher conference was scheduled so that we could begin to address issues with our daughter's classwork. The basic phonics and "what letter does this start with" assignments she's been getting have us somewhat worried. (Just this past weekend, while we drove to the Ren Faire, she read aloud to us two chapters from C.S. Lewis. I think the only word she stumbled on was "prodigious".) We went to an open house at her school, and even the most "advanced" readers in her classroom bookset were at a level FAR below where she is now. So we wanted to talk to her teacher about options for enriching the curriculum and so forth. While nothing was decided, a few ideas were tossed around... and the idea of "skipping" her was also put forward. So now we have to agonize over THAT decision.
I'm not worried about 2nd grade or 3rd grade... she does well with older kids... she makes friends pretty easily... she was in an accelerated Kindergarten class last year with kids who were all a year older and didn't have any problems. What I'm worried about is 6th grade... or 7th grade... or 8th grade... Jesus, middle-school is hell enough ANYWAY without being a year younger than everyone in your class. So the social ramifications have me a little resistant to the idea. But then... do I really want her as bored in school as I always was? My wife skipped a grade in elementary school... I was offered the opportunity but my parents decided against it. Who got the better deal? Probably my wife. I was quite the slacker from 7th grade on. Every class my quarterly grades would go B, C, D, A. (bored... bored... bored... oh shit! I'm gonna fail!) Maybe if I was "challenged" early on, those bad patterns would never have developed. Who knows? All I know is I'm going to stop teaching my 2 year old son the alphabet NOW and start working on football. At least that PAYS for college as opposed to giving us ONE LESS YEAR to save!
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