The Corner

Subjunctive Watch

I am sitting here in my study. Behind me at a kiddie table is Daniel Oliver

Derbyshire, aged 8, doing his English homework. He has to work his way

through a list of ten words, making a sentence with each word. One of the

words was “were.” Danny made up and wrote down the following sentence:

“I wish I were invulnerable.”

The only help I gave him was in the spelling of “invulnerable.”

Is parenting worth while? Oh, yeah.

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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