Learn

I had to have a talk with Tyson tonight about arrogance.  He's smack-dab in the middle of some testing and eligibility for the Highly Capable program, for which he is thrilled.  He really hopes to be accepted into the program, praying he's able to go to the Hi-Cap school within our district.  However, he has been pretty vocal with his siblings recently about how "he knows stuff, otherwise he wouldn't be testing right now."  I immediately nipped that one in the bud.  I explained the definition, gave some examples, and helped him understand what arrogance means, looks like, and feels like.  He apologized to Brennon.

We then talked about school and how the testing was coming along.  He finished all nine test today, although he's taken a few every day for a few days now.  We're just waiting for the results from the District; I know it will be a few weeks still.  I asked him if he was ever bored at school.  "Only when I think, 'I already know this!' all the time."  So I asked him, "Do you know the answers a lot?"  "Yes!" Said very matter-of-fact, yet also kind of annoyed with the fact.  Astounded at how his tiny brain works and seems to just know, I asked him how he had learned everything.  His answer leaves me speechless.

"You!  I learned a lot from you when you taught me in Preschool.  I learn a lot from you now."  He was looking me in the eye.

It's so far from the truth, but I don't know how to tell him.  I am in earnest when I say that I don't know how he does it.  Truly, he is so far advanced; more than any of our other kids at his age.  He's surpassing Shelby's (and incidentally, Brennon's) scores.  I don't help him with any homework-- he never has any.  I don't sit him down for extra work, just the two of us.  I don't really do much in the way of teaching, other than helping every once in a while on a difficult problem.  Even then, I defer to Randy if he's home, not wanting to research if I can't remember how to find the square root of an isosceles triangle, or whatever the heck they're learning in fourth and fifth grade.  But Tyson knows.  And I have no clue how he learned it.

If he looks back on these years as he's accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, remembering that I was some grand teacher, who am I to tell him the truth?

*I find it ironic that both "learned" and "learnt" are highlighted by Spell Check.  I don't know if I am grammatically correct in this post about learning.  I don't know which to use, actually.  I'd ask Tyson, but he's playing outside on this No School day.  I'm very interested in his Parent Teacher Conference in 40 minutes!