I was at elementary school on Monday. There’s one sixth grade student who doesn’t go to class. He sits in the office making papercraft all day. They’ve actually given him his own desk. I take over the desk on Mondays. This past Monday this is what it looked like:

One of the teacher’s has put out a lot of stuff for him. In the middle, next to the pens and slightly behind the laptop, you can see times tables sitting there in the hopes that he will absorb them. I looked closer at the chart next to the Pooh mug:

It’s a science chart. It may or may not be helping him, but it sure helped me. I knew 根（ね） and 葉（は）, but hadn’t learned, or maybe couldn’t remember, 茎（くき）. It just goes to show what you can learn from keeping your eyes open.