Homework nightmares

Last night, my son R. had a homework assignment in which he had to write a letter to  Ruby Bridges.  It seems they had watched a move in school about Ruby Bridges, who was the little six-year-old girl who had to have U.S. marshals walk her into her all-white school. 

At 6:30 R. said he wanted my help. I was cooking dinner but I got things started and then we looked Ruby Bridges up on the Internet.  Then we had a long conversation while I was cooking about why she was important.  R. then wrote one sentence.  We had dinner and my husband came home.  R. still needed help with his homework and just stared at his paper.  Then Dad stepped in and informed R. that we would not tell him what to write and gave him a few more suggestions.  Tears. Wailing. Protestations that he couldn't come up with anything. I came over to offer to help because I became convinced he really couldn't do it. But Dad held fast and eventually R. came out to read us his sentences.  This process, mind you, went on until 10 p.m. W. went to bed, R. was still writing. We had dessert, he was writing over dessert. Finally, he came up with a pretty good letter that was in his own quirky style. "Did you lose many friends when you went to your new school?" he asked in the letter.

My husband gave him a pep talk about how elephants in the circus are conditioned not to break out of their chains and that he doesn't want R. to accept failure like the elephants. Well, I'm not sure about the analogy but it was great. And it does go to show that I'm not always the best one to help them be independent.