Lost in Translation....

Erin (with a LOT of help from especially Mom) completed her science project last week and made her presentation to the class on Tuesday.

(Her project was to have both short and tall kids and adults blow up balloons in accordance with certain rules in order to see if taller people had more lung capacity than shorter people.)

She came home from school on Tuesday rather perturbed. She said that the science teacher had listened to her project report and then had said it was a stupid question and that of course taller people had more lung capacity than shorter people because they had bigger chest cavities.

Hearing this, Cindy shot off a less-than-happy (jugular-searching?) email to the science teacher, asking if this were true.

The science teacher quickly responded....and then we found out what we like to call....

THE REST OF THE STORY (with apologies to Paul Harvey)

You see, after Erin had completed her report, the teacher had asked her some questions (as he asks of all the kids after they finish their reports in order to make them think more and to prepare them for what the judges might ask them). He started with,

"Erin, this may be a stupid question to ask, but wouldn't taller people have higher lung capacity than smaller people because they have bigger chest cavities?"

As you can see, the nuance(?) is slightly(!) different in this context.

After reading this, Cindy probed Erin's memory and came to find out that Erin hadn't really understood what the teacher was trying to ask her, so she didn't interpret it in the spirit it was meant.

I guess this is how parents get in trouble with teachers!

Cindy quickly sent back an apologetic email.

UPDATE: And we also found out that Erin will probably be going to the next level of competition.