In the process of getting caught up in her history workbooks, our 10 year old decided to lag behind in her computer assigned history and science. Apparently, she thought I wouldn’t notice. However, if she considers the last three years of school then she would realize that I would notice, and that I would care. She is a very bright girl so I am not exactly sure why she keeps making these choices, unless it is passive aggressive behavior. I asked her to work on catching up her computer schoolwork while I was delivering mail so that I could have my computer when I got home.

I was a little surprised when I walked in the door and she told me that her schoolwork on the computer was all caught up. I had thought it would take her a couple of days, but she is quite intelligent, so I believed her. I congratulated her and commented that it didn’t take her very long. Then I accepted an invitation for her to attend a party on Saturday because she was working so hard on getting her schoolwork caught up over Christmas break. After that, we all went out to a movie and the children each had their own popcorn and soda.

I had not had time earlier to get on the Internet so I signed on when we got home. The first thing I noticed as I clicked on the start key was the most recent programs used. They were solitaire, paint, minesweepers, and Internet checkers. Hmmm… You may have guessed already that these are not the programs that I use.

This prompted me to sign on to Switched on School House to see if she really was caught up with her assignments. There they were submitted and ready to be graded. I didn’t really have time to grade them because I wanted to work on blogs for tonight, but something made me click on the first one. She had submitted every single essay question that the computer prompts me to grade without anything written. They were completely blank.

I went through all 15 assignments that she had submitted for grading. Not a single one had anything written. That moved her science grade to a 64 percent. At our house, a grade below a “C” requires repeating the course.

I called her over to my computer and told her what I had discovered. I asked her if she had thought about the consequences of these choices when she was making them. I pointed out the most recent programs my computer had used. She didn't have anything to say.

Then I told her how disappointed I was. I sent her off to brush her teeth and then go to bed and assured her that I would fill her father in when he arrived home from work. I figured I would let her worry a little about what the consequences might be.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007