Friday, November 23, 2012

The Gift of the Question Mark

‘Make a sentence with the word “Grass”

That was the question for the 6 year old in her exam. She loved making sentences. She scrunched her face in concentration, and finally wrote a well thought out sentence, remembering all the rules in grammar that she had been taught.

The test paper came back with a zero for the sentence. The red circle around the selected words explained why.

“I saw a lion in the garden eating grass” was what the sentence read.

‘Lion’ was underlined once in red, and ‘eating grass’ was underlined twice by an irritated adult – the teacher.

The girl came back home, and showed the page to yet another adult.

“Hmmm…..” said this adult. “The lion likes to eat grass?”

“No. A lion only likes to eat what it kills. This one likes to eat rabbits, like the one in the story.” Her lips quivered in sadness while she saw the red lines on her test paper.

“Sweetie, then why did this lion eat grass?"

This adult was not angry; just a little surprised with the answer that the six-year old gave. Evidently, the child knew that lions did not eat grass. Was this child a tad rebellious, a little care-a-damn for her own good?

Read why the girl's lion ate the grass at Parentous, where parents exchange views and ideas.

17 comments:

  1. Wonderful post, ma'am. Couldn't agree with you more on each and every word.

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    1. Thank you so much Ph ... long time no see :-)

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  2. I think the Lion had a upset tummy so it needed to eat that grass .. ayurvedic medicine :)


    Bikram's

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    1. Bikram, if you haven't read the post, you will be surprised at the answer ;-)

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    2. I did :) he he he now that was a good coincidence

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  3. I totally agree with you. The task was to form a sentence, and that she did perfectly. Who is the teacher to decide whether the lion likes to eat grass or goat. Maybe that lion was vegetarian! (Yes, I did read the rest of the post and know the real reason. :) )

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    1. Actually, Spiff, not just the sentence framing. If the child was lost in logic, I understand the teacher trying to bring about logical thinking in the child. But if the child is way more imaginative than the teacher.... well, we got problems... Glad to see you after a long time Spiff!

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  4. This was beautiful :)
    Its the things you say to your kid in the innocent days that will stay with them :)

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    1. Absolutely, BBB .... I remember this one to this day! Thanks.

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  5. Sad! Not getting marks for a perfectly structured sentence. Maybe she was writing fiction. It is not in the teacher's place to impose unnecessary conditions.

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    1. Hahaha... try telling that to a teacher :-) !! Thanks for coming along, Shankari (love your name BTW)

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  6. Huh! What right does the English teacher have to pass judgement on the scientific accuracy of the sentence. Got a grammatically correct one, should have been happy. Should have called the kid aside to discuss about this grass eating lion and the possibility of nurturing a budding author, rather than score her paper with a zero. But Kudos to your Dad for standing by you on this issue.

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    1. Maxims, even if she were politically correct to question the logic of a gramatically correct statement, I think she should have spent the time with a 6 year old to understand her logic, right? And thank God for Dads :-)

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  7. Very sweet post! I so love that your dad supported you all the way through!!

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    1. Thank you Roshni..... am so glad Dad did it too :-)...

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  8. such a lovely post and another round of applause for your dear Dad who could fortunately understand his imaginative daughter more than the teacher :)

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    1. absolutely, Sridevi. Thank God for that!! Thank you for coming by

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