Adventures in Tutoring, Week 3

I skipped last week's adventure because Kid never showed. However, I worked with Kid2 and unfortunately liked him a lot better than Kid. He actually seemed interested in learning and wasn't as easily irritated as Kid. We got some homework done and then when it was game time he said "How do you feel about violence?" Always wanting to make a good impression I said I may be ok with it, so he went to an online roleplaying game that I believe had a summary of "As usual, the ugly Puerto Ricans stole your money and are going after your girl and you have to get them. Do you choose the .45 or the semi?" Fortunately he got killed before the moderator saw what I was allowing. I said no more of that game, and suggested Super Mario Brothers, not realizing this was a Tarantino-designed site and that Mario would be carrying a rifle. The computer was not safe, so we moved outside, and who would have guessed but a wholesome game of catch solidified our relationship. Next thing I knew he was asking if I'd always be his tutor and if I'd come back the next day to watch him play sports. Awww.

Alas, Kid was waiting for me when I arrived yesterday, ready to read his extra credit book, Frankenstein. Ugh. I hated this book when I read it in 10th or 11th grade, I can't imagine it holding a 6th grader's attention once he figures out the book's not like the movie versions of the story. Not to mention the plodding and difficult language. If the child's having enough trouble that he needs tutoring and extra credit, does giving him a really hard, boring book make sense?

Anyway, after about 4 pages and 30 questions along the lines of "if she means try, why she gotta say endeavor, why can't she just say try?" and "Shouldn't there be a comma there?" "Yes" "Why do I have to learn all about commas if I don't even need to use them when I write a book?", we come to a passage where the male narrator not only mentions how tenderly he loves his sister, but also how desperately in need he is of some sympathetic male companionship to keep him warm on the cold Russian tundra. Kid threw down the book and said, you guessed it, "This book is starting to seem pretty gay to me." I tried to explain to him that people thought and wrote differently when the book was written (which he didn't believe because the date on the copyright page was 2002--thanks Troll) and that the narrator was really lonely and there's nothing wrong with him wanting some men to spend time with (which also didn't fly because kid argued he'd have to be pretty stupid to want to find a stranger for a friend b/c the "friend" will probably just come on the ship and kill him and steal all his money). The conclusion was that the book needed a parental advisory warning like on cds. I'm thinking "good idea! Parental Advisory: Hard Words" and I go to the bathroom, then when I come back Kid has made a warning: Parental Advisory-Gay Content. Kids these days. Teaching anything that night was offically a lost cause, so Kid, Kid2, and I just played some more Connect Four.