[SoJoCo]

To recap: this is a smart kid. He’s nine years old. He’s in the third grade. He can’t read. And he wants to know, “What’s a vowel?”

He's nine years old and in third grade, illiterate in reading and probably math as well. Why should we describe him as 'a smart kid'? Smart how?

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

The tutor sized up the kid as “smart.” That’s why the tutor thought the story was interesting.

Also, let me apologize to all the grammarians commenting on which vowel does or does not do the talking. Frankly, I don’t know. I’m not myself much of a grammarian and never learned or understood this generalization.

Right or wrong, the tutor used it; and it prompted the boy to say, “What’s a vowel?” The tutor and I had the same basic reaction: just three little words perfectly captured a huge national problem.