Two sides to every story

On the other side of my kitchen table, rests my 10 year old son, Max. Max is an unschooler at heart and he is forced to live with an overly zealous, rigidly scheduled, homeschool mom that sees him for what he is, but is unable to get out of her own box long enough to let him thrive.

Max was assigned a report (2 paragraphs to encourage him to write) on a topic of his choice. He , of course, chose to write about a President. His first choice was George Washington. Now, the problem here is ME. I showed Max how to take notes on Washington, how to collect facts from his book and write them down. He didn't want to do it. He read the book on Washington, decided the facts were not that interesting and that Washington was a boring President. So, he read the rest of the book on Presidents, chapter by chapter, president by president, trying to find one that was interesting.

He settled on FDR. He read another Presidents book on FDR to be sure of his choice. Then he was tired. Stupid, anal, homeschool mom says, "but you don't have any facts written down." . The boy freaks out, angry that he still has to write things down after the hour long discussion of why FDR is the most interesting President. Mom says, "because it is a writing assignment.". I got what I deserved:

FDR
He was elected for 4 terms.
He was born on...
He died on...
He died in office.

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY do I do this to myself OVER and OVER and OVER with this child.