“Triplets” Homework, Part 2

I have learned more about the troublesome triplets homework of my previous post.

In response to my questions, the teacher informed me that she had clearly stated to the class that it was just something for them to try, not to worry if they can’t get the answers. I’m assuming my daughter didn’t hear those instructions, or misunderstood. She usually tries hard to do her best on her homework, and typically becomes quite unhappy when she has to struggle to complete her work.

In addition, I was informed the triplets homework was not an “academic assignment”. Ding, ding, ding! Okay, I’m a little slow, but I think I get it now. Apparently, there are two types of homework -- “academic” and “non-academic”. As the prayer says, I can only hope for the “wisdom to know the difference”. It can be very difficult to tell sometimes.

As some commenters on my initial post noted, there seems to be a growing trend of schools telling us how to spend our home time in activities that have no real bearing on academic learning. Do they think this a way to encourage parental support? I’m with the crowd that says to the schools please just focus on academics. I’ll decide how I want to spend our family time.

Anyway, after all this, I decided that playing the “triplets game” can actually be fun. (I have a vague recollection that there is a board game based on this premise.) For this triplet - “cross, wood, blooded” – I struggled a bit before I settled upon “red” as the correct answer. However, I liked my daughter’s response much better. She confidently answered “Jesus”. Her explanation? He died on a cross, it was wood and it was blooded all over. Somehow, I don’t think this is the answer the school was expecting. :-)