The Cultural Mish Mash

Look at the last one - she was supposed to make a compound sentence using 'with' and of all the sentences possible, she came up with this! Is this a subtle influence of the culture of this country? In a way it is. What happened to influence of the Indian culture the parents grew up with? That is also working overtime. Let me explain for I am sure you are wondering how she even came to think of something like this when she hasn't spent a night away from her brother yet.

Beth was one and a half years old when her brother was born. She was still in diapers, spoke very few words and was a baby herself in every way. To prevent utter chaos, Simba would sleep with mom in one room while Beth would sleep in another with dad. When Simba was a little older, the siblings changed partners and Beth started sleeping with Mom while Simba got Dad (Dad was able to handle him better when he would get up and start howling in the night). Thus started the concept of 'Boys' Room' and 'Girls' Room' in the house (the nomenclature sticks even though they have changed residences really frequently). Everyone got comfortable with this arrangement and now this is the way they like it and all four of them resist any kind of change.

So, what made her forget the happy family and write this? Well, as she grew bigger and started the typical 'girl' activity of gossiping, she started learning that not sleeping alone was "not cool". She tried to sleep alone (yes peer pressure works even when you are 5!) but she is easily scared and she could not do it (not that the parents really tried to make her do it). Her natural fear, combined with the parents' not bothering about this social more, was neatly rounded off by her brothers having no problems with defying social conventions by sleeping with his dad. Simba is generally the leader in being daring and beating a new path, so her efforts did not really get the push it required.

So, how does she deal with it? We see the cultural mish mash in her sentence. She wanted to write that she slept with her mom and her brother with their dad but she knew that was not something she wanted the class or the teacher to know, so she changed 'sleep' to 'stay'. And what do we say about a culture where kids sleeping with parents is not acceptable but it is quite common to see siblings living separately with one parent?

My takeaway - I really need to teach her to lie better!

P.S. - Why are they even teaching interrogative, imperative and all these sentence types to a First Grader anyway?