Am I a Question Mark?

Monday is National Punctuation Day. In honor of that occasion, I invite you to visit this site to determine which punctuation mark best represents your personality. You may even be inspired to pin to your lapel on Monday a notecard upon which you have written your representative punctuation mark! Don't leave this holiday uncelebrated.

Abigail's Awesome Answer

One of our family's favorite things to do during supper each night (throughout the school year) is to share the assignments, homework, projects, tests, newsletters, handouts, etc., that the girls bring home each day from their teachers. They unload their backpacks, and while we eat, Susan and I go through the stacks with the girls.

We "ooh" and "ah" over their good scores and prompt them to reflect on their errors and plan for doing better on the next such assignment or test. We discuss their report cards and behavior reports and quiz them on their spelling word lists and compliment them on their art projects and sign the forms that require parent signatures and ask them to explain what they're studying when we see their study guides and bug collection project instructions and maps to color and books to read.

We listen to their stories about the school day and about their friends and the kids who frustrated them on the playground and the goings-on in their classrooms. We also help them talk through their after-supper and before-breakfast plans: who will read what before bedtime, who will need help studying over breakfast for an upcoming quiz, who has no homework and will instead get right to practicing her piano lessons after supper, etc. It's a good use of time not only to eat but also to bond as a family and stay informed about our children's lives away from us during the day.

That was a lot of set-up for this amusing anecdote:

Abigail brought home a handout that her teacher gave her class of third-graders to provide them practice reading and using a product manual. The handout defines "manual" at the top ("contains directions that help readers use or understand something") and then includes an excerpt from a bicycle manual followed by five questions that the students were to answer by referring to the information in the excerpt. One section of the manual is titled, "Filling a Tire with Air"; here it is in its entirety:

Locate the nozzle on the inside rim of the tire. Remove the cap from the nozzle. Attach a standard bicycle pump to the nozzle. Use the pump as directed. Fill the tire until it is firm. Remove the pump. Replace the cap and screw it tightly in place.

Question #5 corresponds to this excerpt and asks, "What tool would you use to fill a tire with air?" Abigail's answer? Nope, not "bicycle pump."

She wrote, "air compressor."

The teacher did not mark Abigail's answer wrong. Should she have? After all, Abigail did not take the information from the excerpt and use it to answer the question. Clearly, "bicycle pump" is the "correct" answer, according to the bicycle manual provided. And the instructions do specify, "Use the bicycle manual page to answer the questions."

The teacher must have inferred that Abigail was relying on personal experience, not the manual, to answer the question. Daddy uses an air compressor to fill bicycle tires at her house; that was the correct answer, manual be damned! An A+ for the teacher for not marking Abigail's answer wrong. Abigail's response certainly revealed to the teacher Abigail's knowledge, and it likely brought a smile to her face, too. It made Susan and me laugh out loud, that's for sure.

Theodore Roosevelt Symposium

Today was Day 2 of a three-day Theodore Roosevelt Symposium featuring speakers and participants from across the country and sponsored by Dickinson State University. I was not able to participate last year, but I registered for it this year (no cost to faculty, staff, or students) so that I might attend as much of it as possible. I've never really known much about President Teddy Roosevelt, but he's a very big deal in southwest ND (and at DSU; check this out) due to his having lived here before his presidency and his having attributed his success in life at least partially to his experiences while here. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more.

I had appointments throughout the day, but I was able to attend a late-afternoon presentation by Dr. D. Jerome Tweton (professor emeritus of history at the University of North Dakota) . . . that focused not on President Roosevelt but instead on the Marquis de Mores, a contemporary of Roosevelt's whose fame in this region comes from his having founded the nearby town of Medora, a major tourist attraction for the state. Although not much about Roosevelt, it was interesting nevertheless; it expanded on what our family had heard about the Marquis from the guides on our tour of the Marquis' chateau in Medora in July.

Afterward I accompanied my colleague Autumn (herself a history major) to a social held at the beautiful Alumni/Foundation House just east of campus. We enjoyed wine, appetizers, and conversation before supper, which was held across the street (and back on campus) in the Student Center ballroom. I sat next to Rebecca, a representative of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. Her previous jobs included ten years in the U.S. Navy and some positions with historical preservation groups that purchase and restore Civil War battle sites. As you might imagine, she was an interesting conversationalist. (And the meal was good, too: spinach salad with raspberry dressing, slivered almonds, and craisins; multi-grain dinner rolls and butter; two medallions of steak; mashed potatoes; steamed broccoli; chocolate cake layered with cherries; and coffee and water.) (That description was for our "game night" friends' benefit, by the way.)

The speaker during supper was Lowell Baier, executive vice president of the Boone and Crockett Club, a non-profit organization that is part of President Roosevelt's conservation legacy in America. Tomorrow he and others from his organization will join TR Symposium participants in traveling to Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch about an hour from here in the heart of the ND Badlands. The Boone and Crockett Club was instrumental in the recent purchase of that land by the U.S. Forest Service, and the acquisition of Roosevelt's ranch will be commemorated tomorrow in conjunction with the Symposium. (However, not everyone in the region is happy about the event; read this.)

After supper, we attended the "world premiere" of TR: That Man in the White House (subtitled "How Theodore Roosevelt Thirsted for Re-election in 1904 and Bested His Political Rivals While Refusing to Compromise His Core Political Values"--whew!), a radio drama adapted from a full-length script by Hermann Hagedorn and Allan Kenward. It was broadcast live over local radio and featured DSU students, faculty, and friends portraying the roles in reader's theatre style. Performing the role of Roosevelt was Clay Jenkinson, a regional "man of letters" known nationally for his syndicated radio program The Thomas Jefferson Hour and regionally for his scholarship and "historical interpretations" performing as Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and Roosevelt. He also serves as director of the newly created Theodore Roosevelt Center on our campus and as moderator of the TR Symposium itself. His performance was appealing, and being part of a live radio broadcast was fun, too.

Although I never particularly enjoyed history in high school, I have found myself more and more intrigued by the subject with each passing year (perhaps due to my becoming more and more historical over time). I'm glad to have taken advantage of this local opportunity for self-enlightenment on historical topics of both regional and national significance. And if you have clicked on any of the links provided above, then you, too, have learned a bit more about Theodore Roosevelt, just as I did from participating in the Symposium.