04 March 2007

Can you tear a tear? A story about homonyms.

Life is school. A real education is happening 24/7 all around us. I keep having to revisit this theme. Unschooling our children requires that I think differently about how learning occurs, and that I allow them to learn things as they explore and discover them. We had an "ah ha" moment today when Kaitlyn asked me how you know the difference between tear (salty liquid that flows from the eyes typically provoked by emotion) and tear (violently pulling something into pieces), since they are spelled the same way. I explained that it was the context in how the word was used. Then she asked what if what you were reading said "tear a tear". After a good chuckle we realized that nothing would ever say that.
I knew it was good blogging material! Too funny.

1 comment:

  1. You could tear a tear from someone's eye - figuratively, of course, but you are right - you would know from context.
    Like:
    "Marie was so insensitive that Kaitlyn could hardly believe that her sad story could tear a tear from Marie's eyes."
    OK - you are right - you probably would never see that!
    How about read and read...

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♥ Juls ♥