You've gotta have heart
Miles 'n miles n' miles of heart

Oh, it's fine to be a genius of course
But keep that old horse
Before the cart
First you've gotta have heart

Every day is still a learning experience. Fran's been using my bedroom as a quiet study zone.  So if I'm working or chilling I get to absorb a lot of info by osmosis.  The interactive  3-D dvd of the cardiovascular system was interesting; but I'm glad I'm not being tested on the information.  Various study aids have been relocated - an example to your right - that's a great face to wake up to.  (I believe the boys named him something like Joe Guts.  Poor Joe - his pecs are weak and must be supported by a hair elastic.  Loosen the elastic and there will be heart, lung stomach etc. spilling across the table.  I'm sure he is on some CPSC choking hazard watch list. It appears that every other play or educational item made for children under 18 years have been recalled.)

I have the occasional nightmare in which I am back in high school.  They tell me that I am not ready to graduate and I wave my college diploma and demand to know why a college graduate can't get out of high school.  There is something about Fran's school success that reminds me of this nightmare.  There was a time when she was not particularly scholarly - her time at the high school was unpleasant (at least for Rick and me) and a common rejoinder to my encouragement (and flat out demands) was, "You make me not want to go."  Then there was the homeschooling, which, in this case, was not especially stellar.  And then what became something of a gap decade in which we worked out various disagreements and crises.  Fran worked for quite some time as a receptionist and assistant in a veterinary clinic.  She was good - and would probably still be there if she hadn't been absolutely worn out by the demands of a six day work week.

And then... there was this fabulous blossoming of a desire for something more.  And what has started out as an interest in a career in nursing has turned into a ravenous intellectual pursuit.  The girl who was the chronic fugitive from school became the star student.  It's fun to watch her progress.  Because she had been homeschooled without an accredited program she took almost all of the  (required) GED tests years ago when she made something of a weak stab at school.  The whole deal was not completed - I think she hadn't taken the US Constitution test - and now the 'statute of limitations' has sort of run out on the tests that she has already passed.  She's an A student in the pre-nursing program - having breezed through the nursing entrance exam and recently invited to join the Phi Theta Kappa honor society - but her official entry into the nursing school will be delayed a semester because she has to retake some of the GED tests...  This is starting to remind me of my high school nightmare.  Talent and proven performance held up by the technicality of a basic arithmetic test and Constitution exam.  

This isn't a complete waste.  We're all getting a nice review in the Bill of Rights.  (This all makes me relieved that we didn't have to prove any proficiency in the Constitution to be released from high school back in the good old days.)  But she wasn't able to take the math test because the only one being given was in Spanish.  Oops - sorry we made you take German in high school, kid.  You know, when you would show up.  I am so confident in Fran's talent that I think she could have shown up for the Spanish arithmetic test and performed quite well.  OK, story problems would have been a challenge but otherwise I think she could have passed.  

This is all quite absurd.  An A student in college courses spinning her wheels waiting to complete some high school paperwork - though this will give her a chance to get some other requirements, like English composition, out of the way.  The education/industrial complex throws another wrench in the works.  (Is this a good time to bring up the people I've known who could complete high school in three years and then were required to comeback for at least another semester only to complete the state mandated phys. ed. requirements.  Or the people who took three gym classes a day for one semester and then none the next semester.  Meets the requirements of the law without fulfilling its aims.)

I grumble but I'm not really complaining.  Things are working out for Fran in ways beyond that which I had prayed for.  And we have another opportunity to play with Joe Guts and the rest of our assorted collection of plastic body parts.  Just keep that femur away from the dogs, guys.

I like a man with nothing to hide!