Ben has been building, drawing, creating various versions of Iron Man since he was three years old. He has watched Iron Man and Iron Man 2 a couple of times each. As I get caught up with photos, there will eventually be an entire category here on this blog of pictures of his creations.
Hence, the idea that M.I.T. is where he wants to go to college. It is the obvious choice, since that is where Tony Stark went to school. This is why it is so darned frustrating to me when he acts like he hates school, or that he can’t be bothered with homework. If he has aspirations of attending a school like that, I’m pretty sure they are going to want to see an impressive school record.
He gets finished quickly at school, and gets bored. Bored kids can become disruptive, so his teacher and I agreed that he can have a special notebook where he can do research. Drawing or doodling in class is not something they want him doing, but if it’s a sketch to go along with a research project, that is allowed. So we got him a special Research Project Notebook, and for Language & Literature night this week, I downloaded an article written by someone at M.I.T. on the values of keeping a Research Journal. Just the fact that it was from M.I.T. gave it weight, value and a little bit of resonance. It talks about how keeping things written down in one place helps your brain make sense of little fragments of ideas that might turn into something later.
Then we read some poetry from the What Your Third Grader Needs to Know book, which included a selection by Langston Hughes. We talked about how Langston Hughes is a famous black poet, who became famous as a poet before the time when black people were seen as equal in our country, or given a lot of respect for their art. In the poem that we read, Langston Hughes referred to himself as a black man, referred to the color of his skin in particular. Ben was amazed. He said, “I always thought when someone was a black poet, that it just meant they spoke from their dark side. I never knew it meant their skin color!”
That part made me smile.
photo from here
