DD8 brought home a paper last night called "100% You," a creative math exercise where the kids listed out their traits (funny, smart, nice, etc.) and gave themselves values that had to add up to 100%. In it, DD declared herself to be 10% mammal.

so awesome. what were the other bits? space alien? green cheese? robot? i'm excited!

and i'm going to steal this one for DD5 - she's in LOVE with percentages right now, and this would tickle her to no end. and i bet she'll do one for everyone she knows. i can't wait to see what percentage of avocado i am. (probably 95-97% - she says i eat way too many.)

Mammal was the only really amusing one. DD is actually still outraged that her 2nd grade teacher was asked by a student if we're mammals, and the teacher responded in the negative. I had to explain to her that elementary school teachers aren't experts in things like science and math, because kids at that age don't really need to learn from experts, they're just starting with the basics. I'm sure that's why it was included.

I was pleased that "awesome" showed up in her list, though, because that ties in with a theme I've been using with DD regarding self-confidence (self-image is something she really struggles with). When DD is impressed with me and asks, "Wow, Dad, how did you do that?", I often respond with a tongue-in-cheek, "I used my awesomeness." And then I encourage her to tap into her awesomeness, and she'll be surprised with what she can accomplish.

And so, "Hey, I see you've got 16% awesomeness. That's very good, but I think we can improve that. Let's see if you can get to 20% awesomeness by the end of the year."

She rolled her eyes at me, and said she only put that because she couldn't think of anything else.

Love the mammal and awesome components, Dude. I hope this year serves up exactly what your DD needs on the school front.

Dude, that sounds like exactly the kind of sly/pointed commentary that my DD likes to make.

Sadly, most of the time, the teachers are oblivious to her satirical/ironic commentary.


She's been delighted that so many of the people at her college research internship this summer DO 'get' her sense of humor-- or maybe it's a sense of the absurd.

Was there a biblical/religious reason for this ("people aren't animals (and aren't related to them)") or was it just plain ignorance?

[smashes head on desk]



yep - stealing that one, too. clearly, i too can benefit from your awesomeness, Dude!

Only the teacher could answer that one. It sounds like a fun question to ask at an open house, though.

An even better question might be whether or not the teacher sees him/herself more as... er...

an invertebrate of some sort. See, I'm always too "nice" to actually ask it...

which I think that my daughter would say makes me more cephalopod than mammal, since I'm clearly missing the mark with the requisite spinal column, though I seem to have surprisingly good problem-solving skills. Rather like an octopus or squid. Or a cuttlefish. This may explain quite a lot about me, in fact.




DD, on the other hand, identifies as "ninja."

When I'm in a situation like this, I adopt a baffled expression and say something like, "Oh. I didn't know that. What are we then?"

Most of the time, the other person ignores me. Sometimes they give a goofy answer (which in this case might be something like "Well, we're people of course! "