A Sign of the Times

So Ethan came home yesterday all excited about his social studies homework. He absolutely loves his teacher (he was able to "loop" up with all his 4th grade teachers from last year) and so he gladly took on another student's work from his group project. I thought, "Wow, what a nice guy." and also had thoughts of "Shouldn't this child benefit from doing his own research", but you can't kill your son's offer of a kind act of service too early on. As the afternoon progressed Ethan got a little frustrated. You see, he was trying to figure out the parts of government. Ok, I remember: Legislative, Judicial, Executive...we're on a roll. But what exactly can you say about local government? Are we talking Mayor or City Council? What about County Commissioner? I couldn't explain. So what do you do when you don't know....www.ask.com. One look at my middle child's face and the explanation that came next was so sureal: "That's why "Jimmy" couldn't do this assignment. He's ONE of the two kids in my class that doesn't EVEN HAVE a computer at home!!" Can you believe it...the horror, not a single computer? That's when I had my moment of nostalgia remembering when we got our first computer, when I was 8 or so. Nobody had them then and we were cutting edge. I guess times have really changed.