I read this “selection” to my first grader this morning:
See the tree.
The tree is a home.
What can live in the house?
See what lives here.
It is for a raccoon.
Raccoons can live in trees.
The raccoon can go in.
It can go out to get food.
It gets corn and fish to eat.
And then I asked him a series of questions. The first was this:
Draw a line under the best name for this selection.
- A House for a Fish
- The Raccoon’s Home
- The Tree’s Food
As a little 6 year old he listened intently to the passage and made his best guess, choosing #2, and he was correct.
____________
As we grow in our learning, we move toward more extensive efforts to piece together as many facts as possible to create an even greater understanding of the context of specific quotes, chapters, and books.
We are then taught how to write thoughtful, appropriate, and accurate responses.
Let’s play “school” for just a moment.
A few weeks ago I wrote a “selection” on motherhood.
Q: The main intent of my writing is to:
- Encourage moms to pridefully judge other moms in Trader Joe’s.
- Give a specific list of do’s and dont’s and if you fail at any of them you are condemned and considered a horrible parent.
- Make as many people as possible feel bad about themselves.
- Strongly discourage mothers to have alone time.
- None of the above.
A: If you answered #5, you are correct.
If you answered anything else, I’m terribly sorry but you’ve answered incorrectly.
Yet, these were some of the actual responses that I saw come across the feed…
- “I am just sick and tired of people judging me in Trader Joe’s.”
- “All I hear is a list of rules and condemnation. Now I just feel worse about myself.”
- “Sorry, I can beat myself up on a daily basis. Don’t need the help of anyone else…particularly when there isn’t much more than “do better” advice.”
- “It gave me the distinct impression that a mother should never put her own needs first. Because as a mother of 4, I can attest that my kids and husbands needs are never ending.”
- “I do not believe that this author loves Jesus at all because she used the Lord’s name in vain (ex: “Good Lord why are there so many shoes…”)
Webster defines the word comprehension as this: the act or action of grasping with the intellect.
Google dictionary says it this way: the action or capability of understanding something.
“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” – Jeremiah 2:13
*A portion of this article was originally posted on
The Courage on November 1, 2017.
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