Dodo

Last night Maya had a strange homework assignment. This assignment in and of itself seemed pretty odd, especially when Maya mentioned her team was Team Dodo and she needed to come up with a good cheer to sing while climbing a volcano.

Now of course I had a couple questions right off the bat - first being, why is her team called Team Dodo? Isn't that like being put on Team Moron, Team Simpleton or Team Kucinich 2008? What happened to that whole build up children's self-esteem thing? Did that all go out of fashion in the 90's? Secondly, why would anyone climb a volcano anyway, that doesn't even make sense - you'd have to be a total dodo to climb a volcano, wouldn't you?

Well, she didn't have any clear answers and I didn't want belabor the point - after all, what kind of answer is considered a 'good one' when asking a member of Team Dodo why she needs a cheer to sing while climbing a volcano? Really....

So this is what we came up with :

We are The Dodos
We climb Volcanoes
People ask what we know
'Cause we are The Dodos

From a global perspective, I wonder if the children in India have this kind of homework? New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat contends we have entered a dynamic age of globalization where traditional barriers to entry have been removed, and todays generation of young Americans will be competing side by side with those from the far reaches of the globe. Now I don't know if the answer is in a policy of 'no dodos left behind' or something else, but I do know that a generation of kids who often literally don't know the world isn't flat are not going to fare well against those who do.

It's tough trying to raise a kid not to be a dodo these days.