Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for March 29, 2012

“Extemporaneous” is a big word for a little boy.

I too have observed that when I try to read something uninteresting the characters just fall off the page in a heap of gibberish!

Next time, sweep the pile of letters into a trash bag so you can dump ’em on her desk and let HER figure them out.

Doesn’t that teacher realize that he’s telling the truth!deslyx… lixyd… Dyslexia is a real learning disorder.Okay, that’s probably not Calvin’s problem, but…

He can’t pass history but he knows the word “extemporaneous”?

he’s good with words, but not much else [like history, math].an idiot savant???

Miss Wormwood? Miss Worm would what?

She could have, at least, appreciated his originality on the excuse.

I can understand you so well, Calvin!

Did Kafka have excuses like this? I’ll bet Salvador Dali did.

By the way, you kids play nice up there. First Brevity and now Calvin. Everyone get you coffee and chill.

There’s a seriousness beneath the comic surface.

If there ever was a grading in actual creativity, intelligence, morality and autonomy, then Calvin would get an A+ and the good kids, reading the book, would get an F for failing to do the real task instead of simply doing the given task.

Today, however, people like Kafka still has to wake up one day, finding themselves transformed into a gigantic insect.

I don’t even know what the word means. I haven’t even heard or seen it before now.

Sometimes you have a reason, other times you have an excuse. Excuses are often a load of hooey.

Should’ve tried to re-arrange them Calvin. Sometimes that’s all the sense that history seems to make.

knowing Calvin, that probably IS what really happened!

At least his TV understands him…

“Fixative”? Really?

I’d give him an A for imagination, not send him to the principal!

Lucy can ‘splain’ about as well as Calvin did!

He would have gotten an A for creativity from me. I got sick of, “…my little brother or sister threw away my homework,” and “Mom used it to drain the bacon.”

please tries Calvin.. I hope you will be smarter boy..

He maybe be crazy and redundant, but he has a very good vocab.

Miss Wormwood does realize and appreciate Calvin’s originality. She feels her obligation to him – as would any good teacher – is to keep challenging him. Wait’ll you hear his next one. Thanks, Miss Wormwood.

I hate it when I have to pull out the dictionary for this comic ._.

Originally published 03 26 1992.Tomorrow: A tribute to librarians!!

My boy (a HS teacher) and I agree that World history should be taught before American history. After all, American history began with those that were at odds with the establishment in Europe. (I found history boring too, until I spent time in Turkey, Egypt and Jordan and saw where history began.

History Grade= FEnglish Grade= A

Hmmmm. I find that problem with my computer some days—the tubes carrying all the information get plugged, and then leak the letters on the floor behind the computer. A real mess to clean up! Worse, the pages can’t load, and take forever to show up. If they even do.

Genius like Calvin’s is greatly under-appreciated.

Instead of a fixative he needed a print laxative then the words would just flow.

“Print fixative”?

This might have been funnier still if Bill followed the guideline of “show, don’t tell.”

God? I don’t think so. If you’ve got the time, YOU look it up.

Man, that kid’s got the lingo down cold – Calvin for President….

wish I had thought of that excuse when I was in school

Thank you Sharuniboy. I was not diagnosed with my particular disability until my second year doing my Master of Divinity. The psycho-educational assessment confirmed what was only suspected. I also found out that I have ADHD. I was a straight A student st the time of testing, but exhausted and struggling to keep up with the reading. A reading program and grammar program on my computer helped me in my final year.

Come on Calvin,we can do better than that.

You aren’t alone. Some of us skip whole words when caught in the moment because our thoughts fly faster than our fingers can keep up. Of course, some of us simply can’t spell. You get to see a lot of that in the news crawls at the bottom of your TV screen, and frankly, it drives me nuts. This is what our kids are learning from. Did I just end a sentence a preposition with?