Why I call myself a ‘Recovering’ Traditionalist

Everyday a little piece of a traditional teacher creeps out of me in an unexpected way. Yesterday our family was driving around looking at jobs my husband is working on and our oldest son, who sits between us up front in the bench seat of the truck, asks, “What does C-E-N-T-E-R spell?” Both my husband and I tell him to sound it out. In his most whiny voice, he pushes back saying, “Just tell me.” Again we tell him to sound it out and he starts saying sounds that in no way relate to the letters, we continue to encourage him to figure it out and stop his whining because we know this word is not difficult for him and “We will NOT just tell you.” Then he looks at us and says “Geez, it’s ‘center.’ I was just tricking you guys!” So after wrestling with him through that word, not two minutes later he says, “S-L-O-W, what does that spell?” I immediately say “S-L-O-W, that’s ‘slow.'” My husband looks at me with THAT look and says “Seriously, didn’t we just talk about that!” Yup, head slap, I blame the Recovering Traditionalist inside of me…she just wants to tell him the answer and have him ‘get it’…even with reading.