Mama Byrd

Caleb brought home an essay from school this week with a drawing attached. The essay began, “If I could have any pet in the world, I would have a monocada.” The picture showed Caleb in a tree with a brown squirrel-looking creature and the title “Nuttie, the Monocada.”

Now, sometimes I fear that my seven-year-old is smarter than me, but this time I really wondered what kind of advanced zoology they were teaching in second grade! I’ve never heard of a “monocada.”

Being a technology nerd, I imediately turned to the computer and googled “monocada.” My first hit was an essay about Fidel Castro. Monocada was the name of an army barracks that he stormed in 1953. So I thought maybe Caleb is confusing science with social studies. But why are they teaching Cuban history at Central Primary School? Maybe it’s a vast communist conspiracy–something my home-schooling in-laws have long suspected!

Finally I decided I had to go to the source. I asked Caleb to tell me about his drawing. He explained that the monocada is nut-brown and lives in trees. Also, it doesn’t have any eyes. It senses where it is going with its tounge, kind of like a snake. I pointed out that a snake has eyes. It senses sound waves with its tongue, because it doesn’t have any ears.

“Right,” said Caleb. “I mean’t it didn’t have any ears.”

I listened to more fascinating facts about the monocada before I finally blurted out, “Caleb, I’ve never heard of a monocada. Where did you learn about this animal?” I felt so dumb for having to admit to my son that the Pocahontas Public School system had failed me as a second-grader by never teaching me all the animals of Cuban communist countries.

“Mom,” Caleb laughed (at me, I’m sure). “We got to make up our own animals.”

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 27th, 2006