When I was about my son's age, I recall that the only after-school class was the one for detention, where you had to color in the little squares on graph paper for an hour. Even now I can't look at mosaic tiles without feeling slightly guilty!.Nowadays there is a whole range of after-school activities available (for a fee of course), but even so, there are a lot of options; Cross-country, Lego robotics, speech, leaders of tomorrow, skiing, lacrosse, math counts....This year my son has decided to try the Speech class.
I am amazed at what is required of these kids! Not only do they have to give a speech in a competition setting, but they also have to write and memorize their speech. It has to be 8 minutes long and address something other than "10 reasons why I hate school" or "my favorite Wii game" or "How to get a high score on Bejewelled Blitz". Robert's chosen topic is "How technology at work causes stress at home". Surprisingly he has needed very little help from me in writing the speech, but I did find myself doing some research on the causes of stress - actually, I didn't have to research that much, I found I had a whole bunch of real-life examples at my fingertips! The speech is written now so all he has to do is memorize it and learn how to deliver it, all in the next 2 weeks. No small feat to fit in amongst all the homework he has in 8th grade. I hope he doesn't get too stressed about it all...
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