The Realities of Learning

My daughters are in the midst of much testing this week. I am ready for the paranoia to be over, because the way the schools prepare you for tests is pretty mind-numbing. I have had to be the bad guy for weeks, making the kids focus more on various subjects. Roxy, for example, has had to spend hours working on math flashcards. I bought her the flashcards and I would drill her on them nightly after dinner. I even packed flashcards in the car so she could work on them in transit. One day Roxy actually read the flashcard box, which advertised a "fun way to learn math!" Roxy said, "Fun? They must think that flashcards are fun if they put a little animal on it! There's nothing fun about little animals on flashcards! It's still math and nothing changes that. Whoever thought this was fun?" This is Roxy's first mature realization that people advertise things falsely. Who knows what her next rant will be?