The mail last Saturday made it official: we know where Caitlyn will go to kindergarten next year. This process has been agonizing for a number of reasons but I think things can be reduced to (a) difficulty finding the answers to our questions and (b) free-floating societal pressure. There’s an absurd amount of pressure regarding school choice and enrollment. The free parenting magazines that periodically show up in the cubby at preschool are packed with ads from schools and camps and programs as well as articles (vague, overly-generalized articles) on how to get the best for/from your kid. There’s a …
Category: education
I should feel guilty about this. But I don’t, surprisingly enough. Caitlyn and I skipped school today. Sure, she’s been coughing all week and has a sniffle in her nose. And yesterday, two of her teachers commented on it, one to me, one to her. Today she told me that one of her teachers said, “You sound sick. I’m going to stay over here, away from you.” So, we had a reason. But Caitlyn’s not feverish, and she’s gone to school with a cough before. No, the big reason we didn’t go to school today: I didn’t want to. I …
The garden is winding down. I dug out the last of the potatoes today and wished, again, that I’d been keeping track of how many pounds we grew. I gave today’s collection of green beans to the neighbors, since I’ve decided that 5 quarts in the freezer is enough. There are more than 2 pints of sun-dried tomatoes in the fridge, and bowls of tomatoes on the counter waiting to be converted into pasta sauce. Ian is responsible for eating the paprika and mariachi peppers – they’ve both turned out to be too hot for me. Tomorrow, I’ll check on …
Sing with me: “It’s a small world, after all…” Ian’s mother and uncle took high school chemistry and physics from the same teacher, at the same school, I did, though about 20 years before me. And well, P. Q. Boomer is still at it, according to this article, which Ian’s father forwarded to me. Boomer is a performer. Too bad he didn’t start his own circus or something. As a teacher, I’d say, not so much. It’s always amusing to read these profile articles full of fond memories, but I’d really like a slightly more balanced approach. Not all the …
I’ve started receiving daily e-mails from the BBC in an effort to stay somewhat connected to world events. Discovered a nifty feature yesterday: the weekly list of “10 things we didn’t know last week.” According to this week’s list, the 23rd largest tree in the world is named Adam. Of course, now I had to find out about the world’s largest tree. That tree is named after General Sherman. What, did they run out of larger-than-life historical figures by the time they located Adam? By the way, both trees are sequoias (redwoods) and reside in Sequoia National Park in northern …