This evening I picked up My Kid from her afterschool First Lego League Robotics program and called a car service to take us to the Planet Green, Dean of Invention launch party for the new TV show, debuts next Friday at 10 pm as a hip bowling alley in Williamsburg.
There was a cute robot there. Remote controlled. I loved him on sight. He talked to My Kid, But, she wouldn’t talk back. She hid behind me. She wouldn’t shake hands with it. She wouldn’t ride on it.
She ate slider burgers.
We bowled a few games.
My Kid did speak to Jon Dudas (former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U. S. Patent Office, the new president of FIRST) after he had been introduced by Dean Kamen inventor of the Segway, founder of FLL. They spoke of Lego Robotics. He also has a 10-year-old daughter on a FLL team.
My Kid’s future should be assured. But, it’s not!
If only I knew now that I could get My Kid into a middle school that would be both inspirational and encouraging to a girl, who at the age of 10, is beginning her 4th year as a member of an official First Lego League team, (solving the problems of the world with laptops and toy plastic bricks) and who thinks that she wants to become either an engineer or a physicist.
If only I knew she would be going into the hands of teachers who would encourage her to dream big, then, I wouldn’t be so stressed that my Pilate’s teacher asked me today if I’ve lost weight? No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s the middle school search–not really a search, more of an exercise in accepting diminished expectations.
We live in a school district where the best middle schools are proud of teaching kids that college is an option at all!
How can I get My Kid into a middle school that will take the fact that this 10-year-old thinks she likes math and science and wants to be either an engineer or physicist and run with it???
Where do I find a school like that?