This post was written in response to Charli Mills Flash Fiction Challenge over at Carrot Ranch
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Homework
‘Can I go out, mum?’
‘Not till you finish your Spanish homework.’
‘Can’t do it. It’s a six-word flash fiction post on the class blog, about homework. In Spanish!’
‘Six words. Sounds simple to me.’
‘How’s your Spanish?’
‘Rusty. I’ll need Google translator. Let me use your Tablet.’
‘No way. All my private conversations keep popping up.’
‘It’s supposed to be a tool for homework, not socializing!’
‘I can do both.’
‘Homework’s due. Tablet’s gone. Detention’s sure.’
‘You can’t do that!’
‘What about this one: Her only tool, a ballpoint pen’
‘You’re joking!’
‘Tablet’s repossessed. Use your head instead.’
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I’m all for students using new digital technologies, but often they’re misused. Some students are great at chatting and playing games, but haven’t a clue how to search for information, sift through it, analyze it, or use it to understand or further their knowledge.
When I’m not writing, I’m an English teacher. When my students tell me they can’t do their homework, because they don’t know the meaning of a word, I remind them that they’re the only generation in the history of mankind who has access to all the information humanity has accumulated on the tips of their fingers. The sad part is that some of them don’t understand how that can be true. In some cases giving young people a mobile or a Tablet is like giving someone who can’t read a book. He could have fun using the pages to make paper planes.
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This week’s prompt and rules: In 99 words (no more, no less) include a tool in a story. How can it enhance the character, tension or meaning? It can also be a story about a tool or a character’s obsession for tools. Go where the prompt leads.
Would you like to take part or read some of the other entries? Here they are.
Rereading Jane Eyre 
I enjoyed that; and while I’m merely a parent of two I still echo what you say. The best acronym, for a generation obsessed by them is RTM, in response to the how/why/where questions they pose because they are too lazy to think for themselves. Read The Manual. or occasionally, in deep exasperation it becomes RTFM
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😨😂😂😂 Yes they do sometimes drive parents to the F word. I’ve never gone that far as a teacher ‘though! Love the acronyms 😂😂😂
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The greatest thing I ever learned in college was that I didn’t have to know all the answers; just how to find them. That’s brought me more success in life than having an actual degree. I never thought about today’s plugged in generation not knowing how to access all that information we have online! Great flash!
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That’s a great summary of what I meant: You don’t have to know all the answers, just where to find them. Brilliant. Sounds easy… ?
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LOVE that flash! Brilliant.
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Thank you Sarah💗🌹💖 I had fun writing it, too!
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