The Cleverest Boy Ever!

I always ask my kids what they learned at school. I like to hear about their day but also I can determine their level of understanding and whether their Hebrew is improving. Certain subjects are harder than others, either they are taught in a ‘wordy’ way with fewer visual clues or maybe the vocabulary is quite specific and not what they come across in the ‘real world’.

This week my son came home from school and told me that he had learned all about deserts. I told him to tell me all about them and he got very excited. ‘Do you know what a desert looks like?’ he said. I described what most of us would, an arid, sandy, dune-filled terrain. With a sparkle in his eye he told me that he had learned all about cold, snowy deserts. My husband and I looked at each other. Had he misunderstood something in the lesson? Was he joking around with us?

But no, he was insistent; the arctic is a desert. After much debate I went on the internet. Sure enough a desert is classified as somewhere arid, extremely sparsely vegetated with a land devoid of earth. I even found an article about the ‘polar desert’ and another titled ‘Why the Arctic is a Desert’.

Well, well, well, you learn something everyday. I am not sure if the definition of a desert has changed but my husband and I certainly went through primary and secondary school without being taught this in Geography.

So now my son is walking around as if he is a genius. He got one over on mum and dad! He is the cleverest boy ever!!

Sharona B

www.judaicamosaica.com