Comments on: Anti-Compass

By: Karen Nguyen

Karen Nguyen — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:04:03 +0000

I thought I was going to be smart and say that a synonym for an astrolabe was a sextant, but I am too late to be varbane.

By: ender

ender — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:22:08 +0000

OMG … and my college freshmen thought i assigned busywork when i told them to do some library research for a WRITING class.

antonym for compass … 3rd entry down:
http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/compass

but ASTROLABE? she wants a freaking antonym for ASTROLABE? is she out of her freaking little mind?

i swear if i had the money i would start my own school where children actually got to LEARN instead of jump thru stupid hoops.

yeesh.

By: bmgmom

bmgmom — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:03:55 +0000

I’m still laughing…
Great post. I can do no better with those words. I loved your answers. I thought the same thing with astrolabe.
I’m laughing again…

By: meleah rebeccah

meleah rebeccah — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:09:44 +0000

Thanks for the lesson. I love your definitions.

By: terri

terri — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:04:43 +0000

This is homework for 10 year olds? I’m stumped. In the past, when one of my kids was faced with a completely unfair assignment, I… ummm…I admit it… have been known to actually do the work for them. (I only felt a little bit guilty that one time when the teacher wrote a note on the top of my “son’s” assignment telling him what a great job he did.) But this… I can’t even begin to fake it!

By: sleeping beauty

sleeping beauty — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:06:43 +0000

What the hell? Your son is 10 and this is what he is learning? You lost me “age of exploration” for a 10 year old? Ok… I think your son’s IQ is probably higher than mine at this point.

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:38:57 +0000

I am speechless. I nearly scored a perfect score on the English part of the SAT (don’t even ask about math), and that is some messed up sh*t right there.

Sophie is clearly smarter than me, and Chuck is obviously a better parent than you or me, because I would have sent my kid back to school with the kind of thing you wrote.

They wonder why kids graduate from school and can’t write a cohesive sentence.

By: sophie

sophie — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:36:20 +0000

Compass–
synonym–”can I poke you in the eye with my compass?”
antonym–protractor

Age of Exploration–
synonym-puberty
antonym–when we thought the world was flat and “here there be dragons” was written on the edge of the map
Explorer–
synonym–Crazy assed MF who first climbed Mt Everest without dying
antonym–agorophobic hoarding crazy lady with cats

Astrolabe–
synonym–c’mon lady, I live in Houston and I don’t even know what the hell this is. I’m very certain there is not a synonym or antonym.

Yep, this is busy work with a teacher who won’t admit that everything doesn’t fit the ditto sheet. Good luck!

By: jodi

jodi — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:09:24 +0000

See two of us …woooooot! Makes me feel good…and you?

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:52:08 +0000

Dan, I shared your dilemma with a (smarter than me) friend of mine and he responded with the following. I hope it helps….

Compass:
synonym = Boundary, Range, Grasp
antonym = Surpass?

Age of Exploration:
synonym = Age of Adventure
antonym = Dark Ages

Explorer:
synonym = Adventurer, Pathfinder
antonym = Homebody, Milquetoast

Astrolabe:
synonym = Sextant
antonym = Compass

I would personally (face to face) challenge the teacher to explain most of these to me.