High school -- the second time around

My 9th and 11th graders are studying for finals this week, and I'm sitting on the couch beside them, doing my best to help out keep up. When I was in high school, I don't think I learned half of what they have to know, but I'm trying my damnedest to look like I did. We can't let 'em think school is harder now than it was then! Back in the old days, life was tougher. Up-hill, both ways, in a snowstorm! You remember!

Of course kids have it easier these days. They've got computers -- an entire world of knowledge at their fingertips, not to mention in their living rooms, at 11:00 at night. We had Encyclopedia Britannica. In the LIBRARY!

Need to translate something into Spanish? There's an app for that. Gotta locate Brazzaville? Type it into Google. Didn't read the book? No need to wait for the stores to open to buy Cliffs Notes.

And have you seen their calculators? NASA launched astronauts into space with less sophisticated instruments.

So, yes, my kids have tools. Lots of them. But it also seems like they are covering subjects more thoroughly and delving deeper into topics than I ever recall doing. Or maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm looking at that Chem text or that classic novel and trying to understand it instead of just learn it. I suppose it's because when you have to help someone, you do have to "get it" more than just "know it." So, yeah, this second shot at high school hasn't been easy. But I can't say that learning -- or relearning -- this stuff hasn't been kind of fun.

I'm just glad I don't have to take the final.