Demandatory

Orion has always had his own way of saying things. As a young man he would talk up a storm (He still does, for that matter!) to anybody who would listen. He had all the inflections and even paused. His understanding of the conventions of dialog were impeccable. Unfortunately, none of us knew what he was saying. As he grew, some of his words became clearer- some almost made sense. We had "beach shoes" for sandals; "rainbrella" for umbrella; "bunbun" for rabbit; and "window scritches" for windshield wipers. One that stumped us for nearly two years, was "gobbies." He was always asking for gobbies. We never knew what he needed. Until one day he brought us a AA battery and said, "Gobbie!" Sadly, we have never discovered the meaning of "boof."

Where am I going with this walk down memory lane? That is a good question.

Orion returned to school on Thursday of last week. Monday, the homework started rolling in. As a fifth grader, Orion has been reviewing the four types of sentences. You may know them as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. He's been learning them as question, statement, demandatory, and exclamatory.

DEMANDATORY? What on earth? Imagine my surprise when checking his homework! Demandatory, my mind whirled. I asked him, "Orion, what kind of sentences is, 'Write your vocabulary words five times'?" He replied, "Demandatory!" And the light bulb came on! When you tell somebody to do something, you are demanding that they do it, NOT commanding them. Combine this with exclamatory (A more exciting sentence to be sure!) and you get "Demandatory."

With this in mind, I think all fourth and fifth grade language arts be changed: remove the sentence category "command" and replace it with "demandatory." I command it! I demand it!

Perhaps I should just teach him how to write "imperative."