Last night Natalie needed help with a writing assignment. She is a bad combination of perfectionist and procrastinator and it was last-minute and she was in a bad mood. The topic was palladium and she had four or five factual statements written. She was upset though because it was “too boring.” Her teacher had explained that the paragraph should be fun, entertaining and even funny. We were supposed to create a story. Kara said, “You’re the creative writer.” Natalie said, “Yeah, you made up all those cow jokes.”
She wanted puns? This was making no sense to me but I offered, “What do you call a flying bug with red wings and silver shoes? A palladi-bug.” I’ve never seen such disappointment on my daughter’s face.
“Not jokes! A story!”
“Does it have to be a true story?”
“Yes!”
I quickly reviewed my life and truthfully I didn’t have a single palladium story. Then she gave me another twist: The story had to be about the Superhero Mega Palladium. It was starting to come together for me: a fictional story, about a fictional superhero, incorporating facts about the metal. Well, we did it. The best lines were “Mega Palladium helps humanity by lowering emissions and addressing fashion emergencies” and “Although not as popular as other Superheroes, there is a certain luster about him.”
1 comment:
You should get two gold stars or maybe "silver" ones. I question the teacher that gave this assignment. . .
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