<b>The Sandwich Factor</b> [December 2005]

The Sandwich Factor [December 2005]

A few years ago, when David was still in the third grade in school, his teacher assigned a report for the class to do on a city in the United States. There were most of the big cities represented: San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, New York, and the like. David, after looking at the map, decided to do his report on Sandwich, Illinois.

His teacher eventually talked him out of it, worrying that he would not be able to find enough information on Sandwich to do a report, so he followed the crowd and did his report on Seattle, Washington.

How boring! I have nothing against Seattle; I grew up within driving distance of Seattle and I have been there many times. It's a great place to visit. But to quash a kid's creativity in that manner by artificially limiting him to a select set of options ... It just ain't right.

I'm sure that David had a little tongue-in-cheek humor in mind when he made his selection. He tends to operate that way. Sandwich, Illinois: a name unusual enough to have a little fun with; we'll pick that name and worry about the report later. I'm sure his teacher's concern about the dearth of information on Sandwich may have been somewhat justified, but she should have let him figure that out for himself. Besides, a report on Sandwich may have been rather interesting.

Homeschooling has been good for him. We can offer him a little more creativity and confine him less. He could actually do a report on Sandwich, Illinois if we were so inclined to do that sort of thing.

But even in the homeschooling environment, he can be a bit of a challenge. He is a free spirit and likes to do his own thing. Sometimes we have a little trouble getting him to take things seriously enough. Especially when writing. His latest essay shows that the Sandwich-factor is still alive and well.

The boys have been working their way through world history and are studying a king named Charlemange who ruled in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Deb assigned them an essay dealing with Charlemange and his accomplishments and the type of king he was. She called me at work yesterday to read part of his rough draft to me. She was in the basement where she could regain her composure out of sight of the kids. This was supposed to be a serious essay; after all, Charlemange did some big stuff. He had a long-running rivalry with the Saxons and was responsible for reuniting much of Europe after the fall of Rome.

David spiced his essay up with tidbits from other things of interest to him: favorite foods, Robin Hood and his ale-drinking merry men, etc. In describing how industrious Charlemange was, David wrote (and these are his actual words):

I'll bet he was never bored. You can just imagine one of his friends saying, “Wanna come over to my place for pizza and ale?”

“Sure”

“How 'bout Friday?"

“No, I'm besieging the Saxons.”

“Saturday?”

“Nope.”

“Monday?”

“Nope."

“Would any time work for you?”

“How 'bout next year?”

Industriousness, according to David, includes how full the social calendar is.

David's rough drafts can be really rough. His grandpa is partly to blame for this. Grandpa sent an email to David which said there was a study done by some university that concluded that words don't have to be spelled correctly to be readable. As long as the first and last letters are correct, all the other letters in the middle can be jumbled up and the word can still be understood. David has taken this to heart and cites this study whenever there's a spelling error. He also will invent a word when an existing word doesn't satisfy him. In the same essay, the word 'disgusted' wasn't strong enough, and became 'disgustipated' It's enough to send a spelling checker into fits. But that's fine with David. He doesn't use one anyway.

This same Grandpa will read the essay and point out all the mistakes.

The big challenge now is morphing this rough draft into a real essay. One with a good thesis statement, properly formed sentences and paragraphs, and a good conclusion. That usually takes a great deal of work and coaching. Then, when the final draft is all finished, it's usually time to start on the next essay.

Maybe we'll send him out on a field assignment for the next one. To Sandwich, Illinois.

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