One of the great joys of having a child in grade school is you have publishing parties, in which parents are invited into the classroom, to hear from the teacher about the latest writing assignment, and read their children’s stories. Part of the protocol is for parents (and children too) to read other children’s stories and leave some complimentary comments. I couldn’t attend my fifth grade son’s recent publishing gala last 
Friday, but a mom friend who did later greeted me at pick-up with some big laughter at the mere thought of my son’s contribution.
“What’s so funny?” I asked a bit warily.
“Adam had a very special strategy for deciding which of the other kids stories he would read,” she said, with more laughter.
“Do share.”
“He was walking around the class saying, ‘Who has the shortest stories? Those are the ones I’d want to read.’” Sounds like my Adam. “It was awesome,” she added.
It gets better.
When Adam and I spoke about the publishing party, he acknowledged the brief-is-better strategy, but he also defended his participation, indicating that he left a lot of good comments.
Like?
“You know, I wrote things like ‘Good use of figurative language!’”
“Wow, sounds like there were some really good stories,” I admitted, genuinely surprised by the level of his commentary.
“Oh,” Adam clarified. “I didn’t actually ready the stories. I just wanted people to feel good.”
