What’s a Synonym?
I walked into the gym and found the girls lined up on one side of the gym and the boys lined up
on the other side of the gym. In the middle of the gym was an assortment of colorful nerf-like
balls. “What are you playing?” I asked a girl standing next to me. “We‟re playing Four
Corners,” she whispered back to me because the teacher was giving instructions. I whispered
back. “What‟s the purpose of the game?” She gave me a grin and said, “Beat the boys.” After
the teacher was finished talking, he gave the countdown, and the game began. For the next 10
minutes it was mayhem. The girls lost.
In sixth grade language arts the kids were studying vocabulary words. They had to use the
vocabulary words as synonyms, adjectives, antonyms, and find the best vocabulary word to
complete a sentence. “What‟s a synonym?” asked the teacher. About ten seconds passed. The
teacher ignored a student who apparently had been raising his hand to every question asked since
the school year began. [Note: There is usually one in every class.] A different student raised his
hand. The teacher pointed at him. “It means the same thing,” he replied. “Write that down,” said
the teacher to the class, “next to the word „synonym‟ so you don‟t forget.” Here are the
vocabulary words they were working on. Do you know what they mean? Anonymous, anxiety,
beneficial, bounteous, dishearten, enthusiast, individuality, leeway, liberate, receptacle, relic,
replenish, scrawny, taunt, and unattainable.
In a seventh grade social studies class, the kids were completing short answer questions. “Be
sure to embed your answers in your questions,” said the teacher. I walked around the classroom,
checking to see if the kids were actually doing what the teacher had asked them to do. They
were. [Note: When you embed your answer into the question, this is what it looks like—for
example—if the question is, “What did the Federalists believe?” your answer would start with,
“The Federalists believed in….”
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We need your child to help! Come help feed the less fortunate. Our goal is to make and donate
450 sandwiches. We need your child‟s help making sandwiches on Wednesday, January 23. We
will meet right after school and will be done by 4:45 so you can take the activity bus home. Sign
up with Mrs. Rustand in room 257.
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My Child is an introvert. I’m really worried. What should I do?
Stop worrying about whether or not your child is an introvert. If your child is introverted and
they have the skills to interact with other kids and adults but are choosing to spend time alone,
away from other kids and adults—don‟t panic and reach for the red phone to alert the authorities.
Whatever you do—don‟t assume your child will lead a stunted and deprived emotional life
because they like being by themselves.
Introverts get a bad rap by the media and our extrovert-driven society. We glorify the charismatic
leaders and whoever opens their mouth first and closes it last in large meetings. We worship the
bold and braggarts.
Somewhere around a third to perhaps a half of the total population are introverts and introverts,
so there are lots of middle school kids at Central who have introverted tendencies. Sometimes
I‟ll see them reading a book by themselves while a group of kids is talking nearby. Other times
I‟ll see them doing homework mere feet away from large numbers of kids who are playing a
game. At times, it can seem as though the introverted middle school child is a social outcast or
heading to the valley of nerd-dom.
Extroverts, of course, tend to worry about the introverts and whether they will be “normal.”
Introverts, however, tend not to worry about the extroverts, except perhaps to wonder why they
don‟t stop talking in class so the introvert can have time to think without having all the excessive
chatter of extroverts all around them.
So what does the research say? This one is going to surprise you. We all know that extroverts
tend to rise to the top of organizational charts, whether it is a Fortune 500 Business or the local
basketball team. However, there is no correlation between how much people talk and the value
of their ideas. [I know—this will be a stunner to some of you.] What tends to happen in groups is
that the extroverts steamroll over the introverts, even though the introverts may have the better
ideas and thoughts on how to get things done. Extroverts—no surprise here—aren‟t good
listeners. Introverts—as it turns out—are better listeners.
Make sure your child has the skills to converse with other kids and adults. Ensure they have
adequate time playing with other kids. But don‟t hit the red panic button just because they like a
little more time by themselves. They are going to turn out just fine. Not every child needs to talk
constantly all day and mingle with other kids. After all—some of the best thinkers and people on
the planet have been introverts—Sir Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, Gandhi,
Mother Teresa, Warren Buffet, Albert Schweitzer, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and
Abraham Lincoln. Not bad company, eh?