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Post by sotypical42483 on May 17, 2006 12:12:58 GMT -5
^That's interesting, I never knew that. God, it would suck to have CLAUDIA based on you!
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inge
Junior Sitter
Posts: 767
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Post by inge on May 17, 2006 15:33:34 GMT -5
Basing supersmart intelligent Janine on yourself also seems a little... weird.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
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Post by alula on May 17, 2006 16:44:44 GMT -5
I haven't read very many books in the Claudia-goes-back-to-seventh-grade arc (haven't gotten a hold of them yet), and none from her POV, but I've always been baffled by how that's supposed to work. Wouldn't that just make her really far behind when she moved back up after missing a semester? It seems spectacularly illogical. Does it get explained in any halfway logical way in the books?
With regard to SMS having a hardcore curriculum, I do sometimes think maybe the ghostwriters (or Ann) stuck in things they liked, kind of as in jokes, that weren't really representative of what middle-school kids study. (And I'm not even touching the Short Takes classes here). In one of the new ones I read (Stacey's Secret Friend), the English class is studying the Canterbury Tales. Even if they weren't reading them in Middle English, but in translation, that seems pretty unlikely to me--people bitched endlessly about having to read those in AP English as seniors! I've been guilty of sneaking references to things I like in my writing (and convincing myself that those characters would know all that stuff) and then having to take them out later, but that's the vibe I get from those things.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 17, 2006 17:44:07 GMT -5
People bitching endlessly about reading The Canterbury Tales in AP English as seniors? Wow, what wimps. We read them in Grade Ten IB English, and nobody bitched about it. A few years ago, I took a second-year undergraduate English course, and most of the kids were about four years younger than I am. We were studying "The Miller's Tale." My TA asked if anybody had studied Chaucer at all in high school. I said I had, as did one girl who'd studied them in a modern translation, and nobody else had. I wondered, So what are they teaching kids these days?
I do agree, however, that it's unrealistically hardcore to expect that eighth-graders who aren't in an advanced class or anything would be reading Chaucer. I also agree that it's spectacularly illogical for Claudia to be demoted to seventh grade and then allowed back in eighth again. It's highly unrealistic for her to be sent back in the first place, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept that it could happen to the occasional kid somewhere. But getting sent back to eighth grade again partway through the year, after you've already demonstrated that you didn't learn any of the eighth-grade work while you were in the class, and then entirely missing a semester? I'm not buying that at all.
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fluffy
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 180
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Post by fluffy on May 29, 2006 11:48:20 GMT -5
Sometimes in the notebook entries for joint baby-sitting jobs, Claudia would mispell a word right after seeing it being written above her ('I dont know Stasey. Waht do you git?'). She also seemed to have trouble with words involving 'r's and came up with words like 'borther'. Her sentences also sounded very simplistic... I remember that a sitter once jokingly suggested that Claudia purposely did horribly in school so she wouldn't end up like nerdy, friendless Janine. Could Claudia be crying out for attention?
It's very unlikely that Claudia would be bounced back to seventh grade in the middle of October (she was occasionally forced to attend summer school, but always inexplicably passed), but what really irked me was her decision to go back to eighth grade just as she was doing well in the seventh to 'be with her friends'. I don't think Claudia would have had a choice in the decision either. In the seventh-grade spell, she was doing very well in school (and didn't have too bad a social life) for a brief period of time, then went back to being an illiterate ape as soon as she got back to eighth grade. The school shoulda taken action, if you ask me. Is Ann really so hung up on routine?
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ktag
Junior Sitter
Posts: 694
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Post by ktag on May 29, 2006 18:02:22 GMT -5
^Sounds a lot like what happened when she went to a special school in 3rd grade. She was learning better, but she refused to make friends and eventually became depressed. Her parents decided it wasn't worth it and let her go back to SES with Kristy and MA and illiteracy.
If that's the plan, I don't think it worked very well. She always feels dumb around her family. Her friends never mention her illiteracy to her face, but always talk about how bad a speller she is to themselves. They almost never correct her. Though you're right about the joint notebook entries. It's especially great when Mallory is the other one and goes "I think you mean..." when she's 2 years younger.
I used to be in the camp that thought her reading Nancy Drew books was better than nothing. Then I read where one of the kids she sits for loved them too, and I realized it wasn't good that she reads at the same level as a 9 year old. I'm (obviously) not against reading "younger" books, but I can see where her parents are coming from with wanting her to read other stuff.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on May 30, 2006 1:57:11 GMT -5
^ Kind of like how sometimes overweight people eat when they know they are depressed, maybe Claudia is depressed about being a bad speller and spells worse because of that depression?
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on May 30, 2006 22:42:31 GMT -5
^ haha, it's possible, but food can be a comfort to depressed people. I don't see why anyone would be comforted by the act of spelling words incorrectly (although anything's possible!)
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2006 0:23:24 GMT -5
Totally off topic - but I just had to say that I'm amused that the ads at the top of the page just now are for summer schools, ADHD and Dyslexia Treatment and Claudia's Manor B&B. How fitting!
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Post by sotypical42483 on May 31, 2006 11:43:21 GMT -5
Hmm, about Claudia in summer school. She not only always passed, she was "the smart one" in her class! WTF?!
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Post by lovelylemontree on May 31, 2006 13:19:18 GMT -5
In the later books it would, but in the books Ann M. wrote herself, Claudia isn't stupid. She's more of a low-acheiver. Her journal entries only have a few misspellings. They're actually readable!
What's the target age for Nancy Drew books? I know they're in the children's section at Borders, but I always figured they were age appropriate for Claudia. If they're meant for elementary age kids, then I suppose her parents have a point. Grace Blume's also a Nancy Drew fan, but perhaps she's not that bright either.
Apparently, there are dumber kids at SMS than Claudia. Scary.
No, really, I actually can believe her doing better in summer school. I think it has to do with her only needing to focus on a single subject. During the regular schoolyear, she was overwhelmed, but in summer school, she's only responsible for one class.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 31, 2006 18:14:20 GMT -5
^ True. I always do very well in summer classes at university. It's easier to focus on just one class. Although I'm still kind of stressed right now because I have a summer course, I'm trying to find a job, and I have another major thing eating up a lot of my time at the moment.
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Post by sotypical42483 on Jun 1, 2006 15:41:23 GMT -5
Yeah I guess Claud wasn't SO bad in the beginning and you guys might be right about the summer school thing... I just really really really can't stand Claudia so...
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Jun 3, 2006 2:00:56 GMT -5
^ Yeah, I can't really stand Claudia either. I hate it that a lot of her books require us to root for her.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Jun 5, 2006 6:13:25 GMT -5
It's very unlikely that Claudia would be bounced back to seventh grade in the middle of October (she was occasionally forced to attend summer school, but always inexplicably passed), but what really irked me was her decision to go back to eighth grade just as she was doing well in the seventh to 'be with her friends'. I don't think Claudia would have had a choice in the decision either. In the seventh-grade spell, she was doing very well in school (and didn't have too bad a social life) for a brief period of time, then went back to being an illiterate ape as soon as she got back to eighth grade. The school shoulda taken action, if you ask me. Is Ann really so hung up on routine? I never thought about that! If she had the rest of seventh grade to go through, and then all of eighth grade (because she evidently didn't pay attention the first ten years she was there), then how could she switch back to the eighth grade so quickly?! Oh, my head.
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