adjective \ˈē-zē\
causing or involving little difficulty or discomfort
requiring or indicating little effort, thought, or reflection
hmmm. Easy?
What is easy anyway? What is easy for me is not necessarily easy for you. And it is definitely not easy for Aaron.
The Cube. EASY Modular Origami Cube.
6 sheets of paper. 18 steps. 39 photos.
A child with fine motor skill issues and the inability to follow a string of instructions. A mother with limited patience.
Easy?
The Cube project is indicative of the problems we are having at school. Balancing the assignments Aaron is given with what can realistically be expected from him. Questioning what the goal of EACH task is and where it fits into content mastery and academic standards. Is it truly designed to teach or reinforce a concept or simply a time waster that will surely throw us over the precipice we teeter on daily between sanity and a nervous breakdown?
Easy?
Nothing is easy with Aaron. Even the simplest tasks take forever and require multiple reminders and redirects. And most of the time, the assignment is not simple or easy. All too often, there is yelling. And frustration by everyone involved. You can hear it in my voice. You can see it in Aaron's clenched up fists and scrunched up face.
Determining what he can do on his own, what we help with, and what we do for him. Easy? No.
Sometimes we let things slide - things like The Cube. Because when it comes down to it, building an insanely small origami cube will not teach him how to determine the surface area or volume of a shape. It will only illustrate to him, yet again, his weaknesses, his disabilities, his failures. And mine, too.
He will see that what is easy for others is nearly impossible for him. So I will build The Cube and he will turn it in and get a grade on it.
And instead of a lesson in futility and frustration disguised as geometry, he will learn that I will be there to support him and fight for him. In the end, honestly, it's the easiest thing I can do.
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