So my 17-year-old son has struggled in school, but he honestly seemed to be making an effort so far this year. So when I logged on to his school website and discovered that he had gotten a zero on a Brit-Lit quiz, I thought that there must have been some mistake; perhaps the teacher lost his paper, or...
No such luck. "Well, Mom," Benjamin said, "I gotta say, I just don't get Beowulf."
Of course you don't, I thought, flashing back to a 12-year-old with his arms crossed defiantly over his chest while he exclaimed, "I don't like to read, I won't read, and you can't make me!"
He seemed like such an alien back then. "Hell's bells!" I thought at the time. "I can't make you? My mother couldn't stop me when I was your age!" I knew that his attitude would hurt him, and sure enough, it is. Dang it, it's not fun to be right when being right means that your children are suffering the consequences of their stupid and stubborn behavior. There is no such thing as schadenfreude when it comes to your kids.
Anyway, he is going to read something called Sparks notes before he actually reads the text, in the hopes of improving his comprehension. Heck, he has nowhere to go but up, right?
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