Like the Partridge Family, only without the singing. Or the bus.
// August 24th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // kid quotes, school
“Do you really think you are going to wear that?”
“Was I supposed to bring that home?”
“You weren’t going to eat that, were you?”
“Are you sure you need this today?”
“You washed my ___ last night, didn’t you?”
“Can you write another check?”
// August 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // clothing, school, teenagers
Tommy: “I own a pair of jeans and a bunch of t-shirts. Why would I need anything else?”
Sarah: “I don’t need anything new. Except this. And this. And that.”
Noah: “Uhh, what’s wrong with last year’s clothes?”
Amy: “Okay, I really need this outfit and that outfit, but I hafta have earrings to match each outfit.”
Evan: “Star Wars shirt!”
Noah walked around the house combing his hair for 30 minutes before he used a hair dryer on it. Then, he positioned himself in bed, like a body in a casket, so that he wouldn’t mess up his hair. I’m going to fry his brain and take him for a haircut tomorrow afternoon.
Amy has had her outfit and backpack sitting out for almost a week. If she gets up in the morning and tries to “change her mind” I will scream.
Evan doesn’t understand why his school doesn’t begin until next week. He is “ready to play” now. I anticipate tears.
Doug is in a tizzy at the sight of our schedule with five children in five schools. Tommy going to Pellissippi seems to have tripled our driving time. This is one of those times when Doug regrets being a 1 car family. It’s also one of the reasons I now have Catheee. It’s too bad the only school parking lot where I can pick up a signal is Tommy’s school.
// August 11th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // people, school
After several years of watching the school custodian smoking in the same area that students practice flag routines and drums, I have a proposal for him. I will personally coordinate a campaign to keep him stocked in chewing gum, if he will take smoke breaks inside his car, with all the windows rolled up tightly. Think he’ll take me up on my offer?
// August 8th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // school
// August 4th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // people, school
Last week, I started touring all of Knox County’s high schools and meeting the principals. It is the focus of my energies this week and my children are taking advantage of my time away to destroy the house. The end result is that I am scattered in too many directions until next week. Although I am not at the halfway point in my tour, I feel safe in making an observation about the principals of Knox County high schools.
The principals of our high schools are extremely STRONG personalities with clear opinions and big ideas. Their rabid devotion to their individual schools makes the UT fans with bare, painted chests seem mild mannered. When all of the principals gather for meetings, it must be like a room full of firecrackers looking for a spark. School Superintendents must have a Bruce Campbell alter-ego that only appears when they are alone with all of their school principals. Divided, a group of principals would be a nest of stinging bees, but working together, I can only dream of what they could accomplish.
// July 31st, 2009 // 4 Comments » // school, teenagers
Even with a drum saving Sarah’s boyfriend from being squished by a teen driver, I forget that we’ve been doing band camp for three years now. It has poured rain every day this week, but the band is still marching, every day, in the monsoon, from 8 in the morning until 8:30 or 9 every night. Yesterday, I sat in the office of another high school waiting for my appointment as a dazed parent wandered in the center of the school preparation chaos.
“Can I help you?”
“Um, yes. My daughter is a freshman, err, is going to be a freshman and doesn’t want to come to band camp anymore. How do I get band off her class schedule?”
“Well, the guidance counselor is away for training all week. Maybe you can reach her by e-mail.”
“Oh, uh, thanks. We’re going home now.”
“Good luck.”
I squirmed in my chair and bit my tongue so that I didn’t blurt, “You AND your child need to go talk to the band director right now.”
// June 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // politics, school
My children get whiny and my husband gets cranky whenever I leave the house, so outings for anything other than taxi services are rare. I tried to create a weekly outing to write without ten thousand interruptions, but that fell apart. Undaunted, I left the teenagers in charge and spent some time at a School Board meeting this week. I’m pretty sure I was the only person in the room who wasn’t a school or media employee. The board members trickled in and were immediately tackled by a person I will guess is their secretary. She quickly polled each board member about the scheduling for the upcoming retreat and then they wandered off to chat with other people in the room. One board member was absent. Do grown adults have to call someone and give a long detailed explanation of why they can’t attend or are they treated like human beings who sometimes need to say that they had a long day at work and don’t have the mental stamina for several hours of Roberts’ Rules?
The meeting began on time with two newspaper writers seated at the C-shaped table with the board members. One writer typed notes into a laptop while the other writer scribbled notes on paper. Neither media professional Twittered the meeting. None of the board members Twittered the meeting either. I think they need someone to Twitter the action as it happens. I’m not as awesome as Mary Mancini, but I would like to try. I promise not to be a distraction, unlike the television news crews who wandered in and noisily set-up their equipment after the meeting had already started.
I was impressed with the student representative who spoke intelligently and clearly only to be dismissed by one of the board members. That criticism should have been cushioned with praise. There was a lot of truth in her words. Someone needs to explain to me why the Super talks about a STEM high school every single time he does a presentation while during interviews he acts like he’s never suggested a STEM school. In case you weren’t paying attention at the School Board meeting, Knoxville’s biggest obstacle to getting a STEM high school isn’t going to be the funding. It’s the, “if my district can’t have it, neither can yours” attitude from some of the board members. I want to write more about the Superintendent’s Strategic Plan after I have spent additional time studying it. It would be easier to study if I could read it somewhere other than sitting in my kitchen. It’s a little too chaotic in here to concentrate. Maybe I can convince someone to let me borrow one of the printed copies of the 100 page report.
*Shopper News is loaning me a copy! Thank you Jake Mabe.
// June 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // blogging, parenting, school, teenagers
I’m blogging about my bad parenting over at Scholastic Parents.
// June 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // kid quotes, school, teenagers
Me: “Sarah, how many pages have you gotten done in your summer sketchbook so far?”
Sarah: “I did a lot of other art stuff today.”
Me: “Such as?”
Sarah: “I decorated my sketch board.”
// May 21st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // kid quotes, school
Me: “How was the last full day of school? Anything interesting happen today?”
Sarah: “Fine. Nothing. Can I go out tonight?”
Noah: “Well, we played kickball outside during band. Ian punched Justin in the face and everybody was talking about it cause Ian’s a really nice kid. In health we played four square in the gym. We ate lunch in language class instead of the commons. Somebody pulled the fire alarm, but there wasn’t a fire. We did tessellations in math. I heard that some kids made the water fountain flood one of the hallways. I cleaned my locker out and backpacks aren’t allowed tomorrow.”
Amy: “I cleaned out my desk today.”
Isn’t there some urban legend that girls talk more than boys?
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