HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Love that!

Now THAT'S comedy.

That's it, 'Neato! I think you've found the problem with your humor. You're going for witty, esoteric banter. We laugh at beer commercials.

See where you're going wrong?

Ania, I am imagining a situation I encountered in high school where a teacher was just punching the clock and not interested in really teaching anyone. I think that somehow kids need to switch from external motivation (pleasing a teacher for instance) to self-motivation. Even though the teacher is giving me pointless busy work and useless comments (if any!) on graded work, I should still play the game, turn in the stuff, but extend my own learning just because I want to learn something. I think at some point, we want our kids to start differentiating the curriculum for themselves.

How do you extend your own learning? In class or outside of school?

When I was a kid, I would extend my school learning when something caught my imagination. For example, I found an old and wonderfully illustrated (Gustav Dore) edition of The Divine Comedy at a fair for a quarter, and read Inferno on my own over the summer. What a wonderful book!

With my kids, the process seems to happen the same way. Just now, literally, we were all watching a video about a hypothesis for the origin of the moon.

We got on the topic in the car for some reason, and three kids aged 3-8 stood transfixed watching the video again and again.

I try to expose my kids to different ideas to make them aware of what's out there. I also buy tons of books, especially DK-Reader type books, which give good illustrated overviews of a topic.

Val

Ania, I am thinking of high school classes that are less than an hour long. Most of the learning takes place outside class. If the teacher is really apathetic, one can often study topics of one's choice during class...