Friday, November 16, 2007

A different way to look at it

A few days ago I was quizzing Tyce on what he did in school that day.

Me: Did you turn in that assignment, "Portrait of a Homely Person?"

Tyce: Yeah, I did. It's in the basket but the teacher hasn't checked it yet.

Me: What does it mean to be a homely person? (driving home that vocabulary, you know!)

Tyce: It means ordinary . . . not caring what you look like . . . you know, original.

Me: Oh, you don't mean original--you mean unoriginal.

Tyce: No, I mean origninal.

Me: Original means unique, one-of-a-kind.

Tyce: No..........

Me: Okay. What does original mean?

Tyce: It means plain, regular, not special.

Me: (the lightbulb goes on) Oh....Do you mean in the way that original flavored potato chips are plain, but sour cream or barbeque ones are kinda spicy?

Tyce: Yes, exactly. Original.

2 comments:

Mopsie said...

Kids can be so humbling. Funny how our "perception filters" are all so different. Tyce is "an original" and unique. Love him!

brooklyn said...

kids are the most practical beings in the universe.

it remindes me of teaching english. the more i teach, the more i realize how rediculously irrational and non-sensical our language is.