<p>We (60+yo) didn’t start school until after Labor Day-String Bean Harvest season.
and ended the week of Memorial Day-Strawberry Harvest.</p>
<p>Brag:
DS was on NPR, Marketplace, His 15 seconds of fame.</p>
<p>Wow, I so can not relate to the OP, at all. Superficially sounds all intellectual-like yet its trying too hard, making it kind of the opposite, really. Why do I find this so annoying? </p>
<p>I guess because I know real intellectuals read a lot and they talk a lot, but they don’t have a need to report what they are reading and talking about. They might actually do research for a living, not build layman conspiracy theories around a field they can’t actually understand. And they most definitely do not have to post wiki links to Socrates as if those around them have never heard of the man. </p>
<p>As a family of professors, I can tell you that our dinner conversation covers everything from movies, to some article someone read, to having a laugh over some dumb thing a Republican candidate said recently, to fun stories about friends’ lives, to trying to sort out the latest logical puzzle someone is struggling with in their research. You know, real life stuff. </p>
<p>Our children are not our students so we don’t prep dinner conversation like a lecture, and we definitely have no interest in pretending we can ‘test their abilities’. We just enjoy their company and have fun.</p>
<p>Interesteddad,</p>
<p>Two boyfriends?</p>
<p>paying3tuitions - sounds like fun! We play a lot of chess and are musicians, also.</p>
<p>Of course are meal conversations are brilliant - we are paying a fortune for the best colleges, and have for years.</p>
<p>starbright~like your post ;)</p>
<p>H’s family can top cartera’s spoon -hanging – they have been to known to hang spoons off their faces in restaurants. Always keeping it classy, I say!</p>
<p>I’m with you, starbright. We love to debate politics at our dinner table, but no one has to prove intellectual bona fides.</p>
<p>Is this thread a joke or a clever attempt by the OP to mask a political thread as something not prihibited by the TOS? ;)</p>
<p>My mom won’t allow political discussions at the dinner table. My brother and I are at polar opposites politically, and while we are capable of discussing politics (since I am always right), my mom will have none of it. Thus, the spoons.</p>
<p>S and I had have already had our “dinner table discussion” while waiting for pizza to bake. He has agreed to keep his new beard neatly trimmed. I learned his new girlfriend has nose piercings, but no tatooes. He MIGHT look for a job this spring and he’s thinking about picking up a minor. Deep thinkers, we are not.</p>
<p>S works in Taipei so holiday communication is by Skype with a time unbalance of 14 hours. </p>
<p>Besides, I sent him a holiday care package of “home comfort foods” and when we talked yesterday he informed me that “the cheese was great.” So much for his “holiday meal.”</p>
<p>When I was college age (1968-72), the family decided to “keep it light” after dad and I almost went to fist city over the rent strike by the Black Panthers in New Orleans.</p>
<p>I can just imagine the “family fun” of discussing the realative merit of Birthright tours to Israel over the table with a large and diverse extended family. How about the up coming US election and our “options?” </p>
<p>How about indigestion?</p>
<p>[@starbright](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13630775-post42.html]@starbright[/url]:”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13630775-post42.html):</a></p>
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<p>Guilty as charged…I wish I may, I wish I might plead for mercy…I’m just a National Public Radio-junkie:</p>
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<p>My children can all read…</p>
<p>After last nights conversation at dinner, I’m surprised that D can actually tie her own shoes.</p>
<p>Mainly we worked on eating with mouths closed. And especially not talking with food in mouth.</p>
<p>I am sort of hoping I don’t have grandchildren who insist on discussing the meaning of life, the universe and everything else, from the back seat of the car while I desperately try to stay focused on driving. Although it may be quicker this time round since their parents forced me to figure out the answer. If they can read, I’ll give them the book. If they can’t read, I guess I’ll read it to them. But if they just want to listen to the Wheels on the Bus, I will be delighted.</p>
<p>seriously: I am not so sure about the benefit of contriving “intellectual” conversation. If that is the adult norm in the household, the kids obviously benefit. Answering any and all questions, even if it means some joint research, seems desirable. But just deciding to talk differently at table for educational purposes? To think up topics? idk</p>
<p>edit: since my children surpassed me in critical thinking skills long ago, now I have to wonder if the topics they bring up (STILL in the car) are an attempt to test me??? If so I am obviously failing…</p>
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<p>Sure, but those don’t necessarily have to be “canned” intellectual debates either.</p>
<p>Agreed. Our dinner table conversations have been epic at times, since the kids were little. We all read a lot, and we all think a lot, and we all have ideas. We haven’t ever needed to jumpstart the process with “topics.”</p>
<p>oh, and storytelling??? My H is Irish, and the kids have inherited his gift for, um, embellishing the details. (H–“never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”) So we got storytelling covered, for sure.</p>
<p>H is a good storyteller as well. One of his fondest memories from when our kids were little was that he would lie down with one twin on each arm, and tell them a “true story” from his childhood, in which he was slaying dragons, winning Olympic gold medals, running for president, landing on the moon, or whatever tall tale he could think of on the spot. The kids loved it so much that they actually asked if he could tell them a tale over break - and they are 19 years old!</p>
<p>this is my memory from a school break a few years back: my kids and a couple of friends they brought home with them all sitting scrunched together on the couch watching cartoons while they struggle to wake up and eating cereal and talking. Because they never stop talking. First about anime/manga, then the history of anime/manga and then a comparative analysis of eastern and western folklore themes and possible examples in present day cartoons. About “themes” in the cartoon they are watching. And then about the views of theorists of whom I had never heard. And it is all very unselfconscious. Neither pretentious nor pedantic. It is just waking up in the morning talk with your buds. None of whom are literature majors.</p>
<p>I have no idea how to create/orchestrate this kind of breakfast. I just provided the tv and cereal. And didn’t interrupt.</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13633070-post55.html]#55[/url]”>quote</a> Sure, but those don’t necessarily have to be “canned” intellectual debates either.
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<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13633161-post56.html]#56[/url]”>quote</a> …We haven’t ever needed to jumpstart the process with “topics.”
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<p>Having already admitted to being an [NPR-junkie[/url</a>], the following should come as no surprise and offers a suggested rational to not simply rely on osmosis when it comes to our college-age student’s critical thinking skills:</p>
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