<p>We have a routine at the dinner table in which we ask about everyone’s day, so in the course of that we hear about what went on in each class. </p>
<p>When D gets to, “Next, in Spanish class …” we all say “Hola!”<br>
When S gets to, “Next, in French class …” we all say “ooh-la-la”! Don’t ask. We’re kind of corny like that, but it’s a little mini-tradition.</p>
<p>Having said that, we tend to ask “what did you do” as opposed to “what did you learn.”</p>
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<p>Heh. True. Though when my husband asks me what I did at work when I get home every day, work is segmented (more than school was, at least) such that I do one or two major tasks, or deal with one or two major trials/tribulations per day, and usually they’re a continuation of something I’d been working on last week or the week before. Maybe adults forget a little bit how jam-packed school was, and how overwhelming it was in general to be a teenager. I’m overwhelmed as an adult now, but my being overwhelmed seems to be less complicated than it used to be. It’s more articulable now, less confusing to me, than it was when I was a teenager. I remember the good-natured conversation that my mom used to have with my brother and me when she’d pick us up from school every day:</p>
<p>Mom: How was your day?
Aibarr & her brother: Goooood.
Mom: What’d you learn:
Aibarr & her brother (& Mom, joining in): Stuuuuuff.
Mom (& Aibarr & her brother, joining in): What kiiiind of stuuuuff?
All together now: Gooood stuuuuuff.</p>
<p>Sounds a lot like Pizzagirl’s family. :)</p>
<p>Usually “how was school today/what did you learn about” was asked as soon as I got into the car, and I didn’t have the energy to really articulate that it’d been a long, not-so-fascinating day, that I needed some time to decompress. Did my mom really want to hear about reviewing limits in calculus, practicing equilibrium equations in chemistry, or learning past-participle conjugations in Spanish? Reeeeeally? She didn’t remember any of that stuff from high school, and I didn’t want to have her ask, “Wait, what are equilibrium equations?” because heaven forbid she be actually interested in what I’d learned-- I’d have to teach it to her! What a nightmare THAT would be… I’d have to recall that tenuously-learned knowledge before I’d really had a chance for it to solidify in my mind, try to explain what I’d just learned, and we’d all get frustrated. What a mess.</p>
<p>My teenaged mind would go into overload at the thought, and I’d bow out of the situation. “Stuff,” I’d say. “Nothing” strikes me as a response that would be a slightly more defensive alternative to “Stuff.”</p>
<p>For many years what dh did at work was a regular part of the conversation, that we sort of forgot to keep up when the kids were small. When my oldest was taking AP Bio after the APs the teacher had them do oral presentations. My son reported on what dh does (breast cancer research). It was really nice to get caught up and get a version that wasn’t so full of bio lingo that I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Since then we’ve made an effort to share both our jobs with each other and the kids more.</p>
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<p>My kids will talk about that (as appropriate) and hearing it has really helped us (as parents) figure out what areas interest them at most. It’s a bit of an inside joke that from D’s perspective, S drones on about history and from S’s perspective, D drones on about chemistry. We’re not trying to “catch” them or learn the subjects anew, but we may ask a question that’s sparked by what they mention.</p>
<p>This is interesting, because at my house, my mom never asks us anything about school. Not even about grades. Usually I’m the one chatting away about an amusing/witty line a classmate said, the new novel I’m planning to read ahead on, my complaints with teachers, something awesome we talked about, bragging, etc.</p>
<p>I have a feeling my parents are kind of bored by all this lol, but it’s not like they can seriously tell me to stop. My little brother’s the opposite, though, and he’s still in third grade. It seems like some people just like to talk and others just shun the world in their own bubble of coolness lol. ;)</p>
<p>My son never learned anything new in school. I think he attended an empty vacuum instead of high school. Now my daughter has had something interesting to share everyday in high school unless she wasn’t feeling well, and then she just didn’t feel like talking.</p>
<p>I’d stopped answering this question when my mom stopped having a clue what I was talking about, which began somewhere between geometry and chemistry.</p>
<p>Translation:</p>
<p>What did you learn in school today? Nothing = That girl was hot hot hot and I had to figure out some arcane geometry, too. Don’t make me think about it!</p>