Not Running Related, but Movement Related

I totally own a Vespa.

It's orange.

And the DMV granted me a permit to drive said Vespa TODAY!

I never pictured my future self on a Vespa.  I never pictured my future self as a two time marathoner.

I'm kind of excited about what might happen next.

Things My Son Wrote: NRR

End of the school year means an avalanche of papers come home with the child.

It is at times like these when I wished that John Lithgow or Christopher Walken were somehow close, personal family friends who could do a recording of my son's journal in audiobook form.

Reader, I wish that you could read the whole thing from cover to cover. My son's development of his persona is clearly on display in these pages.

Here is a sampling of some of the jewels. I edited the spelling because it was easier to spell it correctly than to accurately type the misspellings.

My big sister thinks school is a joke but I don't think that because sometimes school is fun and I am just lucky because the first recess we bug the kindergarteners.

Hello hello finally well hi...I am dead I am just kidding.

I am a frace (?) caterpillar in the grass awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww just kidding.

Turkey time in November. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chop the turkey!!

Dorky Dora you pick your boogers when you work so you must drink 55 sodas and do not stop until you are done! That is because I am EVIL, EVIL, EVIL! But can I have a donut. NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Sick (followed the drawing of a peace sign). Today I saw writing on a pole (followed by a drawing of the pole with writing on it) and it said bad words. Me, Nathan, and Thomas saw the bad words on the pole when we were playing hide and seek.

Yaaaaaaaaaa I rock!

Sick huh huh don't you think.

What is |x|=? it equals !. Ya. I know times.

It is February. (That constituted the entire entry.)

Holy cheese puffs!

It was so funny I laughed to death.

Today I saw a puddle half of a classroom. I wish I was in a pool right now. Holy tortilla rolls! I stink!

I hate school!!! I love Legos!!! There is a big difference you know. Legos are fun and school is boring.

Well Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules is in theaters now and I'm stuck in school with a bunch of crazy kids. (Followed by drawing of crazy kids.)

I am a big fat chatterbox.

Today is April Fool's Day. I am the best faker on the block. I am making fake blood. It is so funny anyways I can fake cry, fake barf, and a lot more. I pranked someone today.

I love kickball.

In for an inch, in for a mile: Not Running Related (Honestly)

I feel as if I am fighting a battle with my son. And the battle is trying to get him to NOT hate school. This is a heart-breaking battle to have to wage. Sometimes I shudder to think of all the times that my son is told no throughout the school day. He wanted to try out for the talent show. He was told that his talent was inappropriate (Musical Arm Farting!). I disagree with both that assessment and the fact that my son was told this information in the first place. His talent is completely age appropriate. He isn’t a Wall Street Broker; he is a seven year old boy.

Today he threw the cosmic balance out of whack for wearing colored hair gel to school.

Before my son started his instructional day, he was told to go to the office by another teacher for the offensive hair. I then received a phone call in the middle of my first period class from the school. My first thought is that my son broke a limb--why else interrupt my instruction of my students. But then I hear that my son had a "misunderstanding" about crazy hair day.

Bull.

There was no misunderstanding other than the school's misunderstanding about what is actually something to worry about and what is NOT actually something to worry about.

Then he is on the phone with me crying. I try to console him. I asked the secretary if it wasn't allowed. She tells me it isn't. She says, "It's in the handbook." (A handbook that I've since discovered isn't anywhere online.)

Who checks the damned handbook? I check my common sense. Huge mistake when a school doesn't operate under any.

Let me break this down.

1. Does a little color in a student’s hair really “materially and substantially” disrupt the educational process? I can understand that green hair may have been quite scandalous back in the 1950s, but in 2011 it seems like a stretch to argue that green hair gel “materially and substantially” disrupts the educational process OR that it is somehow a danger to others. Or a health concern. I would argue that my son's "altered" hair is no more distracting than a new Justin Bieber shirt or a new pair of shoes.

And if a teacher cannot get kids on track with learning with a little colored hair gel in the classroom, there are much larger issues to address.

2. I work in a school where if I sent a kid out of class because of this, I would be asked some serious questions by my administration. I would have to justify the child being out of the class. Being pulled out of the class is akin to a suspension since the child is missing out on instructional time. My concern is that my son was taken out of class to deal with this when he should have been learning.

3. And if "no artificial hair coloring is allowed" most of the faculty wouldn't be blonde!

Mad props to the principal for calling me and hearing my perspective and the idiocy of their hair code when it is 2011. At the Mother's Day activity, I'm pretty sure that the non-tattooed mothers were the minority. Times they have a-changed. Green hair isn't scandalous.

But it only got worse when I learned from my husband that other children were allowed to have temporarily dyed hair today. My son wasn't on the chosen list. Dearest readers, you will LOVE the reason why.

The Chosen were those who were performing at the Talent Show.

That Mom: Not Running Related

My son's school sent home a parent survey. They wanted suggestions. Here were mine.


1. Consider more recognition for students beyond the Student of the Month award.

I happened to be at an assembly where my son was earning a medal for reading. It also happened to be the student of the month assembly. Without fail, it seemed that all of the students of the month were described as if they were part of the brainwashed hoi polloi in a dystopian novel. Don't get me wrong. I understand the need for compliance in an educational setting, but I also understand perhaps the greater need to celebrate and reward innovation and creativity and IDEAS that may leap unexpectedly from the mouths of seven and eight year old children.

2. Consider a shift in the school's use of praise to motivate CST scores. Shift praise from intelligence to effort.

Praise is one of those tricky things. It doesn't always have positives outcomes. As an undergrad, I was first introduced to the concept of locus of control in a psych class. Around CST time, the faculty spent a lot of time at my son's school praising the students for being such "smart Tigers"! This is possibly one of the WORST things that you can do to a student. I realize the hyperbole, but follow me. If students believe that their intelligence is what is responsible for their successes and failures, they have NO control over it. Once faced with something difficult, the child will believe that he/she is simply not intelligent enough to complete the task. These students often shut down when faced with something difficult or (even worse) won't challenge themselves in the future. On the other hand, we can all control the amount of effort that we put forth. Praise effort! I've read or heard of studies in which students who had their effort praised were more likely to take on challenging tasks. This is what we want. We want our children to not shrink from the difficult; we want our children to feel empowered to take on anything.

3. Consider a year focused on learning more about boys as learners.

I wrote something on the survey about ensuring that boys not be seen as deficient girls, blah, blah, blah. Our current educational climate is not the most nurturing for our male learners. There aren't enough books that appeal to boys when compared with books that appeal to girls. Things that boys are interested in (farts, fights, gore) are often frowned upon by overly motherly female faculty. Science, history, and PE are often regulated to the bottom of the priority list.

It is my hope that my concerns are not summarily dismissed, but that they are actually considered. I believe that the school has simply misstepped in the desire to help more students. I think that they have the best of intentions, but need to sort of take a step back and consider the unintended consequences of their decisions.

I just have to figure out a way to turn in the survey so that it isn't connected back to my son. I'm don't want my son to be labeled as the kid with "that mom."