Long Story Short

My son had to write a sentence for his English class using the word "epic." He wrote this: "Dude, that was epic." He was pleased enough with his repsonse that he felt the need to share it. I asked him if his sentence illustrated his understanding of the word. He changed it to "Dude, that kick flip was epic."
I sighed. Thirteen years old. Eighth grade. I collected myself. "What is the definition of 'epic?'"
"It's a long poem that tells the story of a hero's journey."
"Really?" I was surprised by his confidence. "Can you give me an example?"
"The Odyssey."
My journey was at an end, even though I had just started. He had the right answer. He had an epic answer, but it wasn't his first impulse to write it down. It wouldn't have been very cool to simply give back the answer that his teacher had given him. He was trying to find his own voice. Oddly enough, the one he chose sounded more like a skate punk than a kid who hasn't been on his own skateboard for more than a year. But he has seen a kick flip on line, and he assures me that it was epic.
Kids these days. That's what was going through my head. Followed almost immediately by the sound of my mother laughing. I was in upper level math classes until my senior year in high school, where I began the year taking Elementary Functions. I was having such a good time with my friends that math became secondary. I was the class clown. At some point, my teacher took me aside and told me that while he couldn't force me to drop the class, he could make it very difficult to pass it. I left the room and went straight to my counselor who found me a spot in "Selected Topics In Math." I had gone from the heights of calculus to the slums of algorithmic review. It was more important for me at that moment to be social than to be "smart."
That was more than thirty years ago. A lifetime ago: my son's. Now I'm trying to make sense of this from the other side. I'm trying to keep him on the fine line between being clever and being a smart aleck. It's a wicked tough dance. It helps if you're very smart to begin with.