Sept. 21, 2005

You know it&8217;s a commercial world when kids think Wal-Mart is a compound word.

Though I didn&8217;t buy it, and Ms. Bell sort of skirted right over it, the thought process behind it wasn&8217;t all bad.

Audibly, it does sound like a compound word. Wall is a word. Mart is a word. They combine to form one word. The kids understood the concept, but putting it into place in everyday life is a little harder to grasp.

Tuesday is also not a compound word. And just because fruitcake is, doesn&8217;t mean banana cake and orange cake are.

The assignment wasn&8217;t particularly easy, though &8212; list 20 compound words in about 10 minutes. If you think it sounds easy, try it. Calling up compound words from nowhere (hey, look that&8217;s one) is harder than it sounds.

Yet, the enterprising minds in the room prevailed. I think Tempestt did it first, turning her head to scan the posters on the walls in the classroom (there&8217;s another one).

Back in my schooldays (man, I&8217;m good at this), the mean teachers would&8217;ve called what Tempestt did cheating. The ones with common sense would have praised the action. Luckily, Ms. Bell is one of the latter.

&8220;If it&8217;s there for you to use, use it,&8221; she told the class once she noticed the wandering eyes. &8220;Whatever is there for you to take advantage of, do it.&8221;

Ms. Bell wasn&8217;t teaching compound words anymore (again!), she was teaching common sense.

As an adult who earned a college degree based almost entirely on common sense and very little on scholarly thinking, this is an educational process I&8217;m glad to see.

Essentially, teachers are focusing more on teaching test taking skills than rote memorization of the material tested.

I was first exposed to it in high school, but I&8217;ve heard more and more of it in local schools as teachers prepare their students for state tests at all grade levels.

Most test questions give hints to their answers. Multiple choice offers elimination options. And the world around you is full of starting points.

For example, Friday&8217;s spelling test (the mother of all evils as far as I&8217;m concerned) tested the spelling of homonyms &8212; you remember, wait, weight; steel, steal.

One of the test words was dear. Ms. Bell read a sentence &8212; something along the lines of Joe Bob started his letter with dear. The kids had to use the right form of the word.

On the wall behind them was a large poster outlining the process of writing a friendly letter, and it started with dear.

The world is giving away answers, if the kids will only notice.

The textbooks are far too thick, the interruptions far too many for today&8217;s teachers to properly cover all the material that is set to be covered in a year. But teaching common sense subverts that problem altogether.

They aren&8217;t teaching to the test, they are teaching the test.

And in a grown-up life where listing compound words and MCT scores mean nothing, what better preparation is there than common sense?

Happy one day late birthday Breanna.

Julie Finley is the education reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She writes a weekly column based on experiences with Marty Tuccio&8217;s homeroom class at McLaurin Elementary. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

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