I had an awesome, funny, and very telling conversation about the future of our society with my 14-year old nephew this evening. We were talking about the STAAR test he took this past Monday. He held strong opinions about the subject matter of his essay questions.

Him: They had stupid topics. It was just so frustrating.

Me: What were the topics?

Him: What is friendship? And, what is courage beyond courage?

Me: (Reserving all opinions based on my own experiences. He’s 14 and still learning these concepts.) Why are they stupid topics?

Him: “Because you have to be literal.” They don’t want you to be conceptual.

Me: (Laughing hysterically on the inside and outside, because he says what I am thinking. At 14, these concepts are so limited by age and experience.) So, what is friendship to you?

Him: Bonding and honesty. I mean, we were friends last year and we’re still friends. I play Xbox at your house sometimes and we have sleepovers.

Me: Well, at your age I imagine that is friendship. You will view it differently 15 years from now, but today, “that’s a great answer”.

Him: Why didn’t they ask about immigration or something? “That’s a real topic I could have written six paragraphs about.

Me: (So proud, he’s thinking! And, that’s more than I can say for a lot of adults.)

 

The  “Rejuvenation: The Power & Potential of a Young Mind” (text) by EYHCS published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

©EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD, 2016. UNAUTHORIZED USE AND/OR DUPLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS, PAPERS, AND OTHER ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT EXPRESS AND WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR AND/OR OWNER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. EXCERPTS, LINKS, IMAGES THAT ARE THE COURTESY OF INDULGY.COM WITHIN POSTS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAY BE USED, PROVIDED THAT FULL AND CLEAR CREDIT IS GIVEN TO EYHCS AND 15 WORDS OR LESS WITH APPROPRIATE AND SPECIFIC DIRECTION TO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT.