Quote Originally Posted by TheEmerged View Post
Um, if you can't hit 5k in an entire month, you need help. Even if only able to do it on the 20 school days this month, that's 250 words a day. I can *sneeze* a hundred words, but then again nobody's going to call me young either.
Remeber that schools still need to encourage (& teach) kids to write well, not just to churn out words. Giving a kid an A for writing 30,000 words of unintelligable gibberish just because they put the words on paper does somewhat defeat the point of using it as an educational tool.
Kids are also less skilled at constructing a conherent narrative to sustain itself over that long etc.


Seems I got the sickness like everyone else, so weekend was a bit of a bust - got 800 words done tonight though.

Excerpt from me:

Spoiler
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“You said you would tell me of these constellations tonight.”

I’d just taken a mouthful of food, but did manage an “Uh huh.”

“So? What are they?”

She put it so bluntly, as if expecting that I’d be able to explain it in an instant. Sighing, I pointed up to the sky. “See how some stars are brighter than others? Well people linked them together in ancient times to make shapes like people and animals.”

For my troubles she just looked at me like I was an idiot before turning back to the stars.

“Show me one.”

“Well you see those three stars in a line there,” I leaned my head on her shoulder to make sure she was following my directions correctly. “That’s Orion’s belt, those four bright ones around it are his body, and those lines are his arms.”

Curling her lip in annoyed bewilderment Yvonne squinted, and I could see her eyes flicking back and forth trying to make sense of it.

“That is not a very good depiction of a man, I have seen better by children.”

A dark look came across her face, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Before I could speak Sophia interrupted, laughing.

“You always were a terrible teacher, Maria,” she said, edging over on her knees. Reaching down into the dirt she started to draw a map of Orion.

“See, these are the stars, and but they’re just a guide, you’ve got to imagine a guy kneeling down like this. You can use other stars for more detail but these are just the main ones.”

Her depiction of the constellation’s outline was… less impressive, but got the point across.

“What’s he fighting?” Luiz asked. He was sitting up now, craning his head to see over the fire.

“Taurus, the bull,” she grinned, and started sketching again in the earth. “He requires a bit more imagination to see, though.”

It only took her a moment to draw the fork of the bull’s horns, and I saw Luiz and Yvonne exchange raised eyebrows. The driver turned to look up before shaking his head. “That’s some seriously abstract **** right there.”

Sophia laughed, shrugging, “well you can blame the ancient Greeks for most of them.”