Slash the Trash

Posted by J on Oct 5, 2012 in J Posts | 0 comments

This is the scene from our World School table today in the Swiss Alps — including some bananas, a handwriting workbook, a dry erase board with coordinates, S’s Bible and devotional book, salt and pepper shakers, a map, a beloved stuffed animal, some pencils, and a pocket knife.

Art of Language class this week has been about reading AND THINKING — traditionally called reading comprehension. The boys read short passages, then answer not-obvious questions and draw conclusions about what they’ve read.

Yesterday, H explained how he worked through a particularly difficult multiple choice question — how he eliminated answers that were obviously not correct. “It’s called ‘slashing the trash.’ Mrs. Russell taught us that last year.”

“Yeah, I learned that, too,” W said from another room.

Mrs. Russell was H’s fourth grade teacher. He rolled his eyes when he explained how their class had “worked so hard” on it.

WAY TO GO, MRS. RUSSELL! This week’s “Slash the Trash” moment reminds me that our boys’ education is not won or lost in one year of iffy teaching ….

Plus — thankfully, there’s this — the work of a far greater teacher.

there’s this: