THE TELEPHONE at my desk rang at 3:24 p.m. on the dot.

I knew who it was before I answered. It was my youngest telling me he was home from school. He calls me every day to check in and gives me a run down of his homework and how there is “nothing in the house to eat!”

I use the time to remind him of what chores he needs to do, if he has practice and what the rest of the family is doing and when they’ll be wandering in.

It’s pretty basic stuff that virtually every parent on the planet goes through at one time or another but on this particular day my telephone rang – rather unexpectedly – for a second time.

My son on the other end quickly told me he had a problem. He wasn’t in danger but he said he couldn’t do his spelling homework because he had forgotten his book at school and could I please drop everything and run back there and get it for him and bring it home so he wouldn’t get into trouble the next day.

Excuse me, but I’m working here!

While the mother inside me wanted to save my child from any trouble – real or imaginary – I knew running back to school to get the missing spelling book was not going to happen. I told him he was going to have to take care of the problem himself. After all, I had already passed fourth grade and was fairly confident I could spell all the words on his list. This was not my problem.

Then I suggested he may call a classmate and get the list from them.

He was appalled at my suggestion and had the nerve to “thank” me for “never doing anything” for him.

I was nonplussed. I felt at 10 years of age it was high time he learned to take responsibility for his own homework and he was just going to have to figure this one out on his own. At the very least, I knew a little missed recess time would result in his never “forgetting” to bring his spelling book home again.

That got me to thinking about how many times the kids in my neighborhood – myself included – were on the telephone getting spelling words, running up the street for a history book or five of us took up residence at someone’s dining room table copying math problems from one book.

In the morning before the school bell rang, we’d scrounge around for books and words lists we forgot at school the night before and double check math problems that gave us problems the previous evening. We diagrammed sentences and copied notes as the bus chugged along bumpy roads.

We shared glue, came up with compasses and protractors and dug out extra pieces of poster board on a moment’s notice. Homework was a group effort and we all pulled together in our neighborhood to make sure everyone got everything done.

I think we got more homework down using other people’s books than we did our own and I’m pretty sure if it wasn’t for all that borrowing, sharing and running around none of us would have ever graduated from high school!

Still, I had a fourth grader at home stewing about calling a friend for a spelling word list.

I started to waiver. Maybe I could run down to the school and get his book. Maybe I could just call one of the other parents and have them read the list tome.

Nope! I was sticking to my guns and he was going to have to come up with his spelling words on his own or pay the piper.

I was feeling very smug about what a great parent I was being when the telephone rang again.

Guess who?

Mr. I Need You To Get My Spelling Book was calling to let me know he no longer needed me to get his book. He had gone on the internet and gotten the words himself from his teacher’s website!

That little revelation made me happy as, first of all, I was not aware such a site existed but am glad he did, and he solved his problem on his own. Now, we have a new dilemma -while he will no longer have an excuse not to do his spelling homework, he also has no need to remember to bring his actual book home!

Technology – you gotta love it!

Graham can be reached at tgraham@timesleaderonline.com