Saturday, June 28, 2014

What We Learned: 9th Grade Edition

Two weeks ago, Younger Daughter finished her first year of high school.  Here’s what she learned.

YD:  I learned that I did not know everything in biology.  So I actually learned something in biology class.

Son:  Learning that you don’t know everything is the first step in becoming a scientist.

YD:  In bio, I learned the equation for cellular respiration and photosynthesis, the processes within them, the layout of the organelles that do these specific tasks,  complete dominance and co-dominance.
In math I learned that I will have to eventually know the dreaded thingy – the fraction circle.

Son:  You mean the unit circle.

YD:  Yeah. (She makes a face.)

Son:  I could teach you that this summer.

YD, objecting:  No!  …. In Latin I learned lots of new words.  I learned about the palace of King Cogidubnus.

Me:  Who?!

YD:  He was the client king of Roman Britain, appointed by Claudius, I think, and lived through several emperors until he died.

Son:  Didn’t Salvius kill him?

The high school Latin textbook is basically a soap opera story of a Roman family, with all kinds of murder, mayhem, and slave revolts going on.  That family appeared in a Doctor Who episode which surprised and thrilled our two Latin students.

YD: He’s not dead yet!  In English I learned that there is a  lot more that goes into making a movie than just the actors playing their parts.  In history I learned how to make Irish soda bread.

Son:    Can you learn how to make brownies?

YD:  Brownies are not Irish…. I learned how to take notes on flashcards and that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not something that you can really condemn.

When she said 'flashcards' she meant index cards.  That history teacher was a fiend for having the class copy information from here to there, and especially onto index cards.

Me:  I didn’t learn about that until college.

Son:    Well, we have to learn more things in high school because we have a LOT more history to learn than you did.

YD:  In health class, I learned a lot more about human reproduction than I wanted to know.  I learned about confidence.  And one more thing – loss of innocence.

Son:    You’re not supposed to tell your mom about that.
He was assuming that the loss of innocence she referred to was related to the human reproduction class, but it was not.  She was simply talking about what one finds out about people in general, as one gets a little older and spends some time in the high school world.  It can be eye-opening, rough, and even brutal, folks.

YD: That’s what happens in high school.


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Dear Reader, what is one thing you learned in high school?  Or during this school year?

To read about What We Learned in College, go here.

4 comments:

Joanie said...

I learned that my five year old grand daughter is still innocent and I want to keep her that way as long as possible. :-(

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

My college son (boy#2) is trying to teach the rising 9th grader (boy#4) all sorts of things. The high school graduate (boy#3) is trying to not teach his younger brother too much so that he won't be bored in high school.
I'm cracking up over your son's admonishment that A LOT of history has occurred since you and I went to high school. ;)

One thing I learned in high school:
People with whom you grew up knowing, even (or even especially) at church, can quickly become part of the "in" crowd that parties on the weekend. I learned that I was not cool and never would be part of the "in" crowd, but I also learned that I was okay with that.

Anonymous said...

I learned how to type and do accounting in high school, about biodiversity, conjugating verbs, speech writing and species counting. I feel awfully lucky for it.

The Crislers said...

Hmm. In high school I learned that my favorite teachers were not the ones who took it easy on me. I'm impressed at how much YD learned, and really wishing our local high school had a latin course.