I have been a weepy mess, tearing up several times a day, ever since Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger ditched a US Airways jet safely in the Hudson River last Thursday. The cinema-cheesy symbolism went straight to my core and I am convinced that the United States of America is an airplane and Barack Obama is the cool, calm Carey Grant/Sidney Poitier/Jimmy Stewart type genius pilot who is going to save us all. Or not. Everything makes me tear up. Boats. Airplanes. People asking me what kind of coat I have because they need to buy a warm one before they leave for Washington, DC for the Inauguration. Twitters from friends who are on their way to DC or already in DC. Martin Luther King Day. Fresh snow. Civil Rights Movement veterans on CNN. My husband telling me Obama chose a Nobel prize winning physicist as his energy secretary. Listening to “This American Life”. Miley Cyrus in a grown-up red dress. Malia and Sasha Obama taking pictures of Miley Cyrus. My 8-year-old rolling her eyes because I am tearing up because I am watching both my kid and Malia Obama mouth the words to the Disney tween songs they both know by heart. Reading the Inauguration Parade lineup that includes both the Crow Nation of Montana and the Brooklyn Music and Arts Program. I’m just sitting here with my seatbelt on looking out the window at the water putting all my faith and hope in the pilot as my life flashes before my eyes and I pray for a safe landing: Ourfatherwhoartinheavenhallowedbethynamethykingdomcomethywillbedone-onearthaseitisinheavengiveusthisdayourdailybreadandforgiveusourtrespasses-asweforgivethosewhotrespassagainstusandleadusnotintotemptation-anddeliverusfromevil-AMEN
Tag: Malia Obama
Gifted and Talented
I’m not surprised that the New York City Department of Education failed to increase the number of minority students in gifted and talented program; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/nyregion/30gifted.html. The program was obviously created by a man used to working in an office with a staff, not a mommy juggling school and work and family and HOLIDAY obligations.
I am a white college educated woman stay-at-home-(at least some of the time) mom-obsessed with my only child’s education AND I FAILED TO GET THE PROPER FORMS IN ON TIME in order for my child to take the gifted and talented test.
Last year, right before vacation, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PRE-HOLIDAY CRAZINESS a letter came home about signing up for the special test. The form was to be turned the first or second day back in school after the long Christmahanakwanzikadan New Year break.
The teachers were ambivalent with an “if this is interesting to you, it’s not mandatory…” note.
In MIDDLE OF THE PRE-HOLIDAY CRAZINESS this piece of paper did not get special treatment…
After the holidays, in the school office, a casual question in the school office. The school secretary said the test was only if you wanted to leave this school. My kid’s happy at the school where she is, which also happens to be on my husband’s way to work.
I don’t want to yank my kid out of the school where her friends go, and add a significant commute to her morning for her to attend a gifted and talented program somewhere deeper into Brooklyn that may be nowhere near our go-to subway line.
So…
For whatever reason…
I filled out the form, but I failed to turn it in by the deadline and my kid was not pulled out of class to take the special test.
I felt like a bad parent on that day of the test when the other more organized parents were talking about it.
My kid’s statistically minority friend who took the test well and was accepted into the gifted and talented program, well, she didn’t change schools. Our school has no “gifted and talented” program. They aspire to nurture the gifts of all the children.
Kids are not interchangeable like bricks.
Schools are eco-systems.
Children need more than accelerated programs, they need friends, they need to feel at home in the school building and comfortable in their classroom. They need to be able to like their teachers and know their teachers enjoy them.
At 8, 9 or 10 years old kids are not thinking about their future. They live in the present looking forward to the end of the week at best.
Even Malia Obama, a bright student in a good school, with very prominent parents–when faced with the prospect of her father’s campaign’s unprecedented TV buy on multiple channels–only concern was if his program would pre-empt her favorite Nickelodeon and Disney Channels (which also happen to me my own child’s favorite channels–another reason to vote the Obama Family into the White House).
If you’re blogging about process and there’s not a performance involved you should shoot yourself
Tonight nothing is more important than electing Barack Obama president in November.
However,
My current task is to present a clown piece on September 11 (leaving plenty of time before November to work for Barack Obama.)
My head now is filled with the momentous Obama speech…
“In the words of scripture hold firmly to the hope that we confess” Don’t know what that means but it sounds pretty.”
And I’m thinking of using a Billie Holiday song….
So
Today has not been particularly productive.
There was a nice e-mail in the morning from Lorraine about playing and being on the same page.
My kid got up late and was cranky when she did.
I said “Hey it’s almost lunch time” and “Do you want to go to zoo?”
She cried.
She didn’t have any words so I assumed existential angst about the end of summer and start of the school year.
So I felt guilty.
We made scrambled eggs together using two pans, the regular one and her tiny single serving one.
Catsup.
We made art with a new set of stamps.
We played Junior Scrabble.
We went swimming at the Y (though we weren’t there earlier in the afternoon when Michael Phelps was!)
We hooked up with The Husband/Daddy
We went out for Thai food.
We were late getting home and missed part of Obama’s speech.
Tears during what I did see.
After the speech–It’s so shocking as the parent of an 8-year-old to see how much Malia Obama (just tuned 10 in July) has grown since he first declared in 2007. He started the campaign with two little girls and now he has only one little girl and one tween!
The CNN silence after the speech cameras finding shots of streamers hanging by a thread.