KIDS THESE DAYS

“Sit still,” the trainee told him several times with increasing frustration. “Sit still!” When he finally did sit in his chair, the little boy completed the test. He scored so very badly. The trainer took her student aside. “Try again but let him move around this time.” Do I need to tell how much better he did the second time—on a different version of the same test? He was doing Algebra at age seven. He should have been accelerated in math in middle school. So should his older brother. As a teacher and his mother, I should have insisted.

Light on the rock. This photo was taken thirteen years ago this month and that bright-lit color is bird guano, not stone. After the first storm of the fall season, it washes off and the revealed basalt shows darker gray.
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