Another Last in My Life

Early this school year I wrote in my blog about this being a year of "lasts". My daughter will graduate from high school in two months, and as she is my baby this year has been pretty nostalgic for me. Today I attended my last parent teacher conference. EVER. In the 19 years that I have had children in school, I have never missed a fall or spring conference. I feel strongly that the teachers need to be aware that we care enough about our children's education that we can make the time to attend. Plus I like hearing good things about my kids. And my kids always wanted to know what the teachers said about them. It was with mixed emotions that I headed off to the school this afternoon. Turnout was light, due to the nice weather and the fact that the spring conferences are always less well attended than the one in the fall, particularly by parents of seniors. My last conference was with Mr. Johnson, the journalism and newspaper teacher. He is a bit of a talker, so there is always a wait for him. He ended my parental school career on a high note when he told me that in 23 years of teaching he can count on one hand the number of students who have made an impact on him personally, and Katie is one of them. I wonder if any of my teachers ever felt that way about me? As I left the cafeteria and headed towards the front of the school, I felt this absurd compulsion to run down the halls screaming my head off. Can you imagine the reaction? I'm sad there wasn't a spot for the parents of seniors to gather one last time, maybe for a race to the front door?

What's Wrong with Americans?

The local free paper has a section called "Sound Off", where readers can vent anonymously about things that bug them. In the most recent issue, a parent wrote in one which was entitled "Unfair to car drivers." His (or maybe her) 17 year old driver was following a truck, both of them traveling 36 miles per hour in a 30 miles per hour zone. Now this person's beef was that the girl was pulled over by a motorcycle cop and ticketed while the truck driver was not. When she asked him why, he replied that he could not pull trucks over on his motorcycle. So this parent said that it seems a young girl was a much easier ticket than a truck, and ended the rant by saying "Shame on him." Where is this parent's outrage that his or her child was going six miles over the speed limit? Again this is a perfect example of trying to shift the blame to someone else instead of accepting responsibility for individual actions. To this parent and child, I would say "Shame on you!"