Re: Definitely Defiant

[Win Day <winday -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM>]

>On Thu, 1 Jun 1995 10:13:30 -0700 Matt Ion wrote:

>>Aspect one... Peer pressure. My daughter spoke grammatically
>>correct English (including the proper use of adverbs like
>>'well') as a toddler. But when she started school, her
>>grammatical skills folded like a house of cards because it
>>wasn't cool... She sounded like a nerd. And the older she
>>got, the worse this phenom. became.

>You can get away with it now.  Just make like you're imitating one relatively
>famous android, Lt. Cmdr. Data.

>(And for peers who want to make an issue of it, just hit'em with, "You should
>consider acquiring a sequence of events, the compendium of which describes the
>experience of existance of a sentient being."  That's Dataspeak for "Get a
>life.")

When my son (now 12) was in first grade, he heard a phrase on the
playground, and was teased because he didn't know what it meant. (Needless
to say, it was obscene slang.)

He had always been interested in things medical - he had already read
completely our household copy of "Family Medical Guide", a rather large
reference text for parents. When we explained what the phrase really meant,
his eyes lit up. You could see the light bulb go on. He knew exactly what it
really was, and had the technical terminology down pat.

The next time he was teased on the same phrase, he spouted about 15 minutes
of medical phrases, complete with references. He was willing to draw
pictures, but by that time the bullies had slinked (slunk?) off.

He and his 9-year-old brother still have impressive vocabularies. The trick
is to try and steer them towards friends with similar abilities while
they're young and you still can.

Win
Win Day
Technical Writer/Editor
Email: winday -at- idirect -dot- com