Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 03, 2024

Sounds like Calvin’s speaking a foreign language…..

The only language Calvin wants learn is foul language.

Don’t worry Calvin, it’s the same 1st grade curriculum you’ve had for years now.

Suzie is Bill Watterson’s answer to The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper – a know it all and a brianiac.;-D

Actually, I agree with Calvin, here. Public education should be mandatory only until eighth grade, and then—if a student wants to continue to high school or attend a trade school—it should be at their parents’ expense, not the taxpayers’. And if a student does not wish a secondary education, then he/she will have to work to help support the families. I believe that’s the way it was in the early years of this country’s history.

Those Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are no doubt loaded with chemicals.

Wait until he’s introduced to algebra and geometry!!!

They can make me go until grade eight …

I’ll take the bet that he doesn’t even make it that far.

I learned languages in highschool. That took me where I am today. True, I never really learned French until the 90s and satellite TV. If Miterrand did one good thing it was make subtitles available for all TV films and series. Sadly I learned the hard way that if you buy a French language film on DVD there are no French subtitles for the hearing impaired, which seems odd to me.

Que? (I can’t find my notes on how to make a Spanish question mark (the upside-down one), so this will have to do.

I knew a family that lived on welfare, none went to school and quit when it was legal to. The 2nd to youngest one I met and proudly proclaimed he got his GED, joined the Army and did quite well, the youngest still lives in the dump and gets welfare for his many kids

Well Calvin, repeat this phrase: “Would you like to supersize your meal?”

Delusional that he can make it to grade 8. English had been accepted as a second language while we were an economic power. Traveling in France, Spain and Portugal last year I found that merchants almost always knew English. I fear that may not be true in the future.

What till he learns where his numbers come from.

Go for the GED, then? I would’ve…

Yesterday, someone said that Hobbes was clearly only present in Calvin’s imagination. I replied that we sometimes see Hobbes still with Calvin at the bus stop when Susie joins him there but we see him as the doll that Susie and other characters see him as. Today, Susie has joined Calvin but there is no sign of Hobbes. Either Calvin really was imagining Hobbes being present as in yesterday’s strip or Hobbes went back inside the house before Susie came.

Grade eight? Or age sixteen, whichever comes first.

Calvin’s gonna have a hard time finding a job with an 8th grade education

Talk Mom and Dad into home schooling!

Eight grade only? I wasn’t aware that Calvin was Amish.

By the time Calvin reaches eighth grade, he will be too old to attend high school.

I was always Susie in this first panel. I loved getting new books, notebooks, school supplies, etc. :)

I’m wondering why he picked 8th grade? You’re only about 14 years old at that time…not old enough to drive, not old enough to find a job and earn money to be on your own. I think the only thing that he’ll find that happens at that age is he’ll really begin to start liking girls….much to his consternation!

He gets more Trump-like every day…

Based on last week’s national education test scores children today will require 32 years of elementary education, military recruits 42.

¡La escuela puede ser divertida!

Calvin might end up one of those disaffected folks who dissed schooling, dropped out as soon as possible, took a menial job and blames the rest of the world, especially Democratic politicians, for his life stinking. While it is undeniably true that the system is unfair, it is also true that you get don’t back if you don’t put in.

Very expressive…..don’t you think?

Excited about going to school? She gots to be kidding me. Ain’t nobody is excited to goes to steenky school.

Cal’s has a very vivid imagination, but sometimes shows very little ability to deal with the ‘real’ world.

Susie, you are so right!

Wow! If Our Be❤️ed Count had said that there would be more red flags than May Day in Moscow, boy howdy.

Not the nineteenth century, Calvin.

Dad left grade school after 8th grade to learn a trade. Mom went thru Normal school to become a teacher. All of the four children went to school beyond high school.

Thirty years ago, Susie opened RGK Jr.’s eyes to the problems he continues to fight to this day.

There’s a chatter with Calvin’s attitude toward language in Dickens’ LITTLE DORRIT. He’s essentially one of the good guys- loyal and generous, and retired with a large home and loads of money, but he has some blind spots too. He’s one of those who thinks that the proper approach when dealing with foreign speakers is to simply speak English more loudly.

Calvin’s bad days seem to last forever.

That’s it, Jethro. You tell ’em!

looks like Calvin did take some of his dad’s conservative lectures to heart after all…also has this comic ever been featured on “accidental racism” or something like that?

Calvin’s attitude reminds me of the time that I whined to one of my grammar school teachers, “I have to stay in school until I’m 18!” She replied, “Consider me, Carl. I have to stay here until I’m 65!”

All I remember from grade school French is la garçon, la mason and la petite fe

yo, clavin English or Spanish?

Susie Derkins is my favorite character, even though I love Calvin and Hobbes. I knew a girl like her when I was in elementary school.

Well Calvin is clearly being a tad unreasonable here. But while I normally have a lot of sympathy for Susie, in the first panel I’m not too fond of her either. People who are that perky that early in the morning are never my favorites, and even less so if it’s the first day back to the grind after a nice long stretch of leisure time.

Calvin grew up to be a Trumper.

Where is Hobbes? I agree with Calvin basically. English/American!

I enjoyed school. I lived mostly in a 40-foot-house trailer, which moved every 18 months, with my parents and three brothers. School was where they kept all the interesting books and, in those days, I had plenty of elbow room. Today, I still buy interesting pens; however, I rarely use them, anymore.

Both the kids show the stark contrast which is prevalent between school lovers and haters on the occasion of school opening.

Go until grade eight? Does Calvin go to a K-8 school or something? Because he’d still need to go to high school after that.

Yup, Calvin still tracks…

“Grade eight”. Mr. Watterson are you Canadian?

My grandmother was forced to stop school when she finished eighth grade. Her father wanted her to stay home and care for her many younger siblings. So she moved out of state and got a factory job.

“You should maybe check the chemical content of your breakfast cereal.” That’s a good line to use on plenty of adults as well! Much better than the crude and overused line, “Who peed in your Cheerios?”

I have to say I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry in regards to the comment left by an earlier commenter. The comment about the current administration letting in millions of illegals seems interesting to say the least. Seeing as how Trump keeps harping on the fact that Biden and Harris have had 3 and a half years to fix it. Does that mean that he is saying that when he left office, the immigration problem was a mess and he didn’t fix it? Seems very hypocritical of him to blame others for the mess he admits he left when he left office.

I knew it. Calvin is a republican.

Since this strip, they have added foreign languages to some grade schools’ curricula. Though there is some doubt it really is worth it at any level for everyone who studies them.

I would suggest that once they can drive and have a car, they should be able to drop out, they can navigate themselves and earn money to buy things, plus they’d have (depending on job) a few years to stay with their parents to save up, that sounds pretty good

209 comments till now and counting. This makes the strip cult-like.

Schools should be publicly FUNDED, but privately RUN. Let schools compete for student dollars.