No love for Latin

April 28, 2011

When I got home from work yesterday I discovered that CJ was in a lousy mood.  As you may know, he is a teenager.  Therefore, a lousy mood would not be unusual, you might think.  However, this is CJ.  He is sometimes irked, occasionally frustrated, from time to time angered, and now and again bothered.  Rarely is CJ in a full out lousy mood. 

As it turns out, he had received a poor grade in Latin class on a homework assignment.  Is eram tristis.  I think that means "he was sad".  It's all Greek to me.

In my school days, I studied Spanish.  While I realize that Latin is the base for a lot of languages, including Spanish, it has not allowed me to either speak Spanish to anyone or help CJ with Latin.  No hablo el Latin.

So Beth talked it out with him for awhile, and then I spoke with him a couple minutes on the way to his drum lesson.  The most disappointing thing for CJ right now is that he wants to do well.  I was glad to learn that he wasn't upset because he thought Beth and I would be mad at him.  It is much better that he simply takes pride in doing well in school. 

Unfortunately, the reasons that he signed on for Latin in the first place have come back to haunt him.  (I thought haunt was a clever choice since he is being haunted by a dead language).  First, the Latin club is the biggest club in school and seems to have the most fun.  They go on trips, have bonfires, play laser tag, and throw Christians to the lions.  (No Christians were harmed in the writing of this blog).  Second, some of his best friends signed up for Latin, including his "girlfriend".  Please keep in mind that he is 14 and having a "girlfriend" is VERY harmless at his age.

I know some of you watch MTV and the news and know that plenty of 14 year olds are trying to figure out how to be pregnant and in the 8th grade, but EEWWW!  That is hopefully not normal.

 I am guessing CJ has never even held hands with the young lady, much less any canoodling.  Again, EEEEEEEWWWW!  Skyping and texting and seeing each other in Latin class are pretty much the extent of their relationship thus far.

So how did we get CJ out of this lousy mood last night.  Well, Beth was the antidote when she explained to CJ that he was not only in a class with several above average scholastic performers, but if he was worried about looking stupid in front of his girlfriend, he needn't fret.  She went on to explain that girls rarely concern themselves more with how smart their boyfriend is, but more so with how cute he is.  He should be fine in that category.

Her final piece of evidence came, apparently, when I turned my back from the conversation.  She made some gesture to CJ, in order to prove her point, that she finds me to be way cuter than smart.  Huh?  I am not as think as she dumbs I am.