Out of the mouths of my babes

I thought I should do a post for the 4th of July, and of course the first thing that pops into my mind is my dad. He was born on the this day so it was more than a holiday for us. I wasn't sure what to write because I figure I always write about him on this day except for the year I was in Scotland. That day I shut down the entire hotel by blowing all the circuits with a hair dryer. Hey! America!

I checked back a year ago to see what I wrote. Pretty much the above paragraph. That got me curious and I went through all the July posts of every year of my blog. What a trip down memory lane, and they weren't all about my dad. In 2009 I did a summer home schooling program for my kids and two others. For the upcoming holiday, we learned about Francis Scott Key and the American flag. They then had to write a paragraph about the flag. I reminded them of that time this morning.

Me: "Look what happened. Darcy said about Francis Scott Key back then, "I don't even know who that dude is!" That's funny."

Madison: "I don't know who that dude is now."

Me: "You're kidding me, right? Messing with me?"

Madison: "No. I really don't know who that is."

Me: "Darcy, you know who Francis Scott Key is, right?"

Darcy: "Yeah."

Me: "Thank god. Your sister has no idea. How pitiful is that? Wait. Who is he, Darcy?"

Darcy: "Dang! I was hoping you weren't going to ask that."

Madison: "Maybe if I saw a picture of him I would remember."

Me: "Seriously? Okay, let me show you a picture."

Madison: "Is he a Steelers player?"

Me: "No. No, he was not and is not a Steelers player."

Madison: (looks) "Oh. Oh, it's history. I didn't learn American history. I never learned pre-civil war history. I learned ancient Greek and Rome history. I learned civil war and WWI and WWII, but I never learned about the founding of our country."

Me: "Do you know who Betsy Ross is?"

Madison: "Yes. She sewed the American flag. You act like this is something really horrible. Wait. Did he write the Star Spangled Banner?"

Me: "Yes. Yes, he wrote our National Anthem. And you did learn this. I just read this on my blog. That we learned this in summer home school class."

Darcy: "I'm going to take a Twitter poll on how many people know who this guy is."

Me: "Let's take the test they give to get citizenship."

I gave the test to Madison which consisted of ten random questions. She got nine correct, and frankly, the tenth question was sketchy. What is one thing Ben Franklin is known for? Discovering electricity is not the answer.

Me: "You know more than I thought for someone that claims she doesn't know American history."

Madison: "I learned it all from the musical Hamilton. I can sing a whole song about the Constitutional Convention. I know the presidents and their vice presidents. Can you name them? Huh? And what political party they were? I think that is more significant then knowing who Francis Scott Keene is."

Me: "And there is the ending to my blog. It's KEY, God Dammit!"

(I'll let you know the Twitter poll results when we get them)