Meatballs beat computer programming

So my youngest came home with an project about a foreign country. Due the second to last day of school. My first reaction - only a deranged person would assign something like this. I should have tried a bit harder at the PTA fundraiser this year. Or sent a better teacher gift before winter break.

Then I read over the list of ideas...this is an official list of possible projects from the Dr Carol Tomlinson at the UVA Curry School of Education. There at the bottom:

It says: Write a computer program. Be still my heart. I suggested  something done in Alice, or Scratch, but for now she is leaning towards meatballs. She says it's what the kids want. There was a lot of eye rolling involved in this conversation.

When I asked why she wasn't interested in a program, she said she'd done all that and wanted to try something new. Fair enough...apparently I am my own enemy on this one.