Q: How did Japan's geography influence the diet of the people?
DS writes: They ate fish.
When I asked him to elaborate, he said: it's an island. I asked for more, he said: because it's an island, they are surrounded by water, and fish are plentiful. When I told him that's what he needs to write, he said that is dumb, anybody would understand what he meant when he said "they ate fish." I told him that makes him look like he's being lazy and he had no idea why that would be.
Another one, that I can't remember exact words:
Q: Why would Ruler So-and-So use X (a God) in his laws?
DS: Because the people were idiots.
Seriously! I told DS first, he should never use "idiot" in a class assignment because it is rude and judgmental. Then I asked him what he meant. He was able to explain it was because the ruler could use the belief system of the people to manipulate them, but it was like pulling teeth to get that answer. All he could think was "those people were so stupid" and that's all he really had to say about that.
His answers are so bizarre.
This! The first one is my DD9 and the second one is my DS12. I figured out last year on DD's reading comprehension assignments that she reads the question, thinks "......................" that much about it, and writes "..." a piece from the middle. Which makes no sense whatsoever, unless you can unpack it and see the long string of thought that it came out of.
We're still fighting the battle with DS about having to show the teacher that you know stuff, because (in his case) she has never even met him and knows absolutely nothing about him or what he knows about anything -- if it doesn't show up in the work, she doesn't know he knows it.
And DeeDee, my DS has always been that one who puts "because I know it" on the line for "how do you know?"
Or "because I'm smart." Or "because that's the answer." And in many cases, I've been at a loss to see what else he might be supposed to say. How do you explain how you know that 7 plus 5 equals 12? Because it does.
Eco, I am so with you in this.
