Anachronism

The other evening I was helping Andrew with his homework. They’re studying American symbols, and he had a worksheet on the Statue of Liberty. Question 1:

The Statue of Liberty raises a ______________ in her left hand.

“Torch,” he said and wrote that down. Question 2:

The Statue of Liberty holds a _________ in her right hand.

“Book,” he says, and starts to write.

“I think it’s supposed to be a tablet,” I say.

“Nuh-uh,” he replies, “they didn’t have tablets back then!”

So I had to explain that “tablet” meant something different back before we had iPads and such.