So Unrealistic!

Ever noticed that in the whole roster of teen comedies that nobody ever has any homework? The only real homework-doing I can think of is at the end of Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the best teen comedy ever), though I guess the Bill and Ted movies involved time travel to help do a history presentation. It's like watching 24 and wondering when Jack Bauer eats or goes to the bathroom.

As an older person, I particularly scoff at the movies like 17 Again. I know everyone has moments where they'd like to go back in time and do the thing's they were doing back then with the knowledge they have now. This mature perspective, of course, would not be of any use was one required to write a 5 page paper comparing and contrasting Odysseus and Penelope. There have been occasions when my kids have had reading assignments and I've read along with them, just to help them understand the books, but I last read the Odyssey in 1967 and I ain't doing it again. I remember "Rosy-fingered dawn" and "Wily Odysseus" and a major slaughter scene at the end and that's about it. So how well prepared am I to help my kid write that paper?