I see that all the time in my students. When I see my students sulk, I send them to the school counselor for a talk. They usually bounce back in a few days or weeks.
Clearly Elizabeth does not have the benefit of having a teacher as good as you are. In this comic strip, the only people who seem to be aware of Elizabeth’s failures are Dawn and Elizabeth. Even after this conversation, John is blissfully unaware that Elizabeth has been having any problems in school.
As for Liz? April is not due for another 2 months so that will be a long while for Liz to adjust to the new baby so I presume she will continue to be unfocused at school until then.
Probably longer than that, because she is going to have a crying newborn in her room every night. She will have a lack of sleep to contend with in addition to everything else.
“Involving verbs” would be my guess. Just like “verbose” would mean “using lots of verbs” and “verbatim” would mean “things that verbs eat” and “verboten” would mean “how much money a verb owes.”
As for “oral”, it makes me think of the dentist. So, I use the word “verbal” instead.
In defense of Lynn Johnston’s editor, Lee Salem, RIP. Lee Salem was renowned for being able to discover massive cartooning talents and letting follow their own instincts. There are classic stories of how Lee Salem defended the writers of The Boondocks and Doonesbury over their creative choices against their critics. It should be noted that even in Lynn’s case, if he even made the suggestion of setting the story in the United States, he did not oppose Lynn’s desire to go Canadian. After all, she still worked for him for decades and even let him name her comic strip.
John: I know something’s wrong… Is it the new baby?
Elizabeth: {to herself} If I talk about how I am failing school I will get in trouble. Baby. Definitely baby." {to John} ::Sniff!:: All I ever hear you talk about is the new baby!
The main issue then is that Gunther and Luann have moved far enough apart from each other where they are no longer talking on a regular basis. How long has it been since we have seen them alone talking?
For example, we haven’t seen uncle Phil not months, not since the moving plot, or before that when he was Mike’s music teacher…
Uncle Phil is based on Lynn Johnston’s own brother, Alan Ridgway. The two of them had a falling out after their mother died in 1989 and their father died in 1990. Because of that, Lynn Johnston effectively removed the character of Uncle Phil, even though he will still make occasional appearances.
What happened to Lawrence was that at Michael’s birthday party he started dancing with Michael’s girlfriend, Martha, when Michael was ignoring Martha. Lawrence and Martha started dating and during that time Lawrence was rarely in the comic strip. Gordon Mayes moved into the “Michael’s best friend” spot. At a Valentine’s Day dance after that, Martha revealed that she had been only seeing Lawrence to make Michael jealous. She threw herself at Michael (essentially breaking up with Lawrence) and Mike / Martha were together again. Since then Lawrence will appear with Michael but only as a part of a large group of friends, as in the example above.
Even if it’s just a few months in Luann time, that is a considerable period for the Gunther/Luann dynamic.