11.24.2015

First High School Research Paper




My son read me the draft of his narrative for English about Amelia Earhart's 1932 transatlantic solo flight.  I told him I doubted that she brought protein bars with her, and doubted that she was wearing a dress that day.  

He said he was assuming those things.  

I asked if his teacher wanted fiction or nonfiction.  Non, but the teacher said you could imagine details to make it more vivid.  

I explained that the imagined details must be realistic.  For example, it was probably not the case that she was bored on the flight.  

"But mom, it was 15 hours!  Of course it was boring.  She didn't even have the internet."

"Just because you think it's boring, doesn't mean that she did."

"But there's no information on her," my son complained and then said he wished he would have chosen Kennedy's assassination because there is a ton about that.  

I asked if he had tried looking in any books.  He had one at school but didn't really find it useful.  I suggested he might find it more useful if he actually read it.  He doubted it.  

To prove to me there is no information, he searched, "What did Amelia Earhart eat on her transatlantic flight?"

He clicked on the first article which he scrolled through complaining that he didn't want to read all that just to find out what she ate when she probably just ate some protein bars.  I said I doubted protein bars had been invented.  He asked Siri,"When were protein bars invented?"  He frowned when she replied, "the 1960's."

"Well," he said, "then I'll just put she had coffee and bread.  Those were already invented, right?"




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