I often think that the Lone Star Baby would make a good linguist someday because she is so interested in words. She has always been strangely verbal and now is at the point where she can actually express some of the things she is thinking about language. Her revelations are interesting to me, but I continue to be surprised at the things she comes up with at her age.
One day, she was reading to me and read a word that had "ai" in it. She then felt the need to expound:
LSB: I know the A-I phonogram. It says A.
Me: Did you just say phonogram?
Another day, rather out of the blue:
LSB: Trilingual.
Me: You mean like L- in your class? Because he speaks English, Spanish and German?
LSB: Yes. I'm....bilingual.
Me: Yes, you are. You speak English and Spanish.
LSB: I'm a little bit trilingual because L- taught me some aleman. I know tannenbaum and shmooshtia (note from me: I have no idea how to spell the latter - she says it means "teddy bear").
Me: Yes, a little bit.
Today, also out of the blue:
LSB: Kangaroo has three.
Me: What do you mean? Who's Kangaroo?
LSB: No; kangaroo has three. I forgot the word. Kang-a-roo (clapping three times).
Me: Syllables?
LSB: Yes. Syllables. Cookie has two.
As entrancing as I find all of this, I have to wonder what will become of my sensitive, cerebral child in the post-climate change future. Her other main topic of contemplation (if you don't count television) is theology and we belong to a religious community that does not do "hireling priests". I have real doubts about the future of employment for linguists and theology professors in the future we are headed to. My eldest also seems most suited to a career as a college professor or as a policy analyst in a think tank, but I fear there will be no place for useless intellectuals like ourselves in the future they will face. Perhaps we should be pushing them towards training in agriculture? Midwifery? It's so hard to know whether to encourage them to embrace their gifts or train for survival in a harsher world.
5 comments:
Phonogram? Oh my what a smart gazookas! And what grim contemplations for the new year. Surely there will always be room for thinkers, won't there?
I don't know...
I think/worry about the same things too. My daughter is operatic and performance driven, and I can spend sleepless nights worrying about how she will fare when Bede and I are gone. It seems wise to learn the so-called practical skills as well as the fine arts and intellectual pursuits. It would be good for all high-schoolers to be able to choose and specialize in a practical art and graduate with that set of skills in addition to the academics.
I know. Our school systems are already struggling. I'm just stating what I think would have been helpful to me.
I certainly have zero practical skills myself. I wouldn't even be able to teach my kids anything. Makes me worry.
Farida, did you ever read Gate to The Women's Country? In its fictional post-apocalyptic future, all women choose and study an art and an academic field and a 'craft" - which is the practical stuff. Not a bad idea.
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