Giving credit where credit is due.........................

Made it through the THREE hour cross country banquet (though my thoughts were, "I would rather have SIX root canals, back to back, instead of sitting through that again."), and the induction for this years National Honors Society, so I can cross both of those off my list of "last time I have tos." In addition to being able to cross them off, in the four hours of attendance time I was able to get the biggest share of a sock knitted, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time. Boy! That sounds pretty terrible doesn't it, saying that going to a school function for my kid is a waste of my time. Well, at least I am an honest terrible mother.

At the National Honors thing, I sat in front of a parent that made funny comments (the kind I was making to myself, but was alone so I didn't have anyone to say them out loud to)the entire time, so I was VERY entertained. I wanted to introduce myself at the end of the thing, and tell him how much I appreciated his comments, but I didn't want him to think I was eavesdropping so I didn't.

By the time the senior class was crossing the stage, I had dropped a stich and couldn't recover it in the near dark auditorium, so I watched all the kids cross the stage and rated them for style and grace. You might think I am prejudice, but my youngest had the most poise and grace of all of them. One after the other, the kids schlep across, many of the girls either scuffing in flip flops or teetering on a too high heel. And then comes my kid, head held high, eye contact and a firm handshake of just the right duration. She didn't trip or anything, making her mother very, very proud! There was one other girl that MIGHT have beat her out, but she was already up on stage (being one of the officers of the class) so having to weave around the other students and adults on stage was a tiny bit distracting, giving my youngest a clear victory over her.

The other cool thing that happen was after listening to the principal's key note address, my youngest came home all fired up to use his part of the speech that said "stand up for what you believe in, and don't be afraid to be who you are." as ammunition (her word, not mine) to go in and talk to him about the trouble she continues to have with one of her teachers. Granted, when she did just this, the prinicpal told her, and I am quoting here, "It is not the teacher's job to teach, just to make sure you learn," as his reasoning why it is perfectly acceptable for another student to be the only one that teaches the class anything. My questions regarding this comment: Why call them teachers then, why not facilitators, and what happens next year when there isn't a (insert kid's name here) to do his teaching for him? She is not done with that battle, and I will keep you informed if anything interesting develops.

Anyway, I felt duty bound to share the good points of those two evenings, since I like to complain about the not so good points in life so much of the time. Who said I couldn't play fair?