Y is for Yesterday

As the students work their way through their own alphabiographies, I include a question they can come and answer each day once they have written. The reward for them is a Jolly Rancher, but the reward for me is the opportunity to have a brief personal conversation with each young writer. 

I usually try to make a connection between the question and the example title, so on the day that kids might be working on the letter U, the example was U is for Understand, and the question was  What is something that used to confuse you, but now you understand?

I was unprepared for their disarming honesty. Kids told me about being mystified by escalators, military time, their locker combinations, long division, and the rules of football, among other things. And to a one they were so proud of their new knowledge that I was perfectly charmed, and I wished I'd asked the question before.

Life Lesson: But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone. ~Chad and Jeremy "Yesterday's Gone"

U is for Unquestionably

"Will you make angel food cake?" Heidi asked me this afternoon on her way out of school to meet her trainer.

Looking up from my computer I sighed, and with a trace of a scowl told her I would see what I could do. "It's not a quick thing," I said dismissively.

She nodded understandingly and waved. "No worries. See you at home."

We were talking about our dinner plans. Today is her dad's birthday, the first since we lost him in November. Our tradition is to remember our loved ones on their birthdays by celebrating with a meal they would have relished. We had already agreed on lasagna, but I hadn't even considered a dessert. Even so, I knew that angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream was Gary's favorite.

As soon as she was gone I realized what a jerk I was being. Later at the grocery store, I looked for a cake in the bakery without luck. There was nothing in the freezer section, either. Finally, I hit upon the notion of a cake mix and rolling my cart down the aisle plucked the last box of angel food from the shelf.

"You really didn't have to do that," Heidi said graciously when she got home and saw the cupcakes cooling on the counter.

Oh, but I did. Happy Birthday, Gary.

Life Lesson: Someday, when I'm awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you" ~Bryan Ferry "The Way You Look Tonight"

N is for Not a Good Sign

I was reading the examiner's manual to my testing group this morning, a task I have completed countless times over the last 30+ years. As I started, I thought back to the first time I ever got to use my most official-sounding voice to read directions that I had heard dozens of times myself when I was a student. Today you will take a test... The words were a thrilling confirmation that I had made it to the other side of the big desk and was actually a teacher. 

What I wasn't aware of then was how onerous such tests can be for so many students. As a good test-taker myself, I was oblivious to the stamina and engagement it took for some to complete what I always enjoyed as a way to show off my aptitude and learning. It didn't take long for me to observe how unpleasant these sessions could be for some kids, but like so many in my profession, I considered them necessary, if disagreeable.

In the decades since, the powers that be, both local, state, and national have piled on more and more standardized tests and raised the stakes on them for students, teachers, and school districts. In 2023, testing was a 37-billion-dollar industry. We pay for the tests, we pay for the data, we pay for tests that predict the test results, we pay for programs that remediate predicted deficits.

In the same decades, my experience and observations have convinced me that there is an over-emphasis on these 'snap-shots" of temporal data. The exams don't really tell us much we don't already know. Still, in this data-driven world, mine is a minority opinion. (Although I am joined by many other student-facing professionals.)

And so this morning I stood in a room of 14 sixth-graders, all with test-taking challenges. Oh, they were as ready and willing as possible to sit still for 3 hours; they have been reared to this ritual since kindergarten. I read from my examiner's manual and watched as they logged in and tapped their way to the sample question screen, which gave them a simple passage and easy questions to practice using the test's functions. 

Scanning the room I saw that half of them had selected the wrong answer for the first two samples. I sighed and kept reading.

Life Lesson: Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind. Do this, don't do that. Can't you read the sign? ~Five Man Electrical Band "Signs"

H is for Huh

"What do you like to do in your spare time?" a student who was interviewing me for the profile piece asked this afternoon.

I dove right in. "I garden and cook and read and walk my dog," I answered. "I also love hiking and pickleball and going to the movies. I used to bike a lot, but I need a new bike. In the summer I swim at my pool. Oh! And I like to do puzzles, too."

I sat back, confident that I had given him plenty of directions to go in.

He looked confused. "Huh," he said. "I would have thought you would say writing."

I laughed. "That too," I shrugged.

Life Lesson: Don't you, forget about me. Don't, don't, don't, don't don't you, forget about me. ~Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me"

L is for Lucky

"Today is the luckiest day of the year, astrologically," my sister read from her iPad over breakfast yesterday. "Jupiter is in alignment with the sun," she continued. "But you have to lean into it, it won't just happen," she finished.

"That sounds great!" I said, and our conversation wandered on to other things.

Later in the day, though, it felt for all the world that good luck was the opposite of the prevailing vibe when my sister got stuck in gridlocked traffic just a mile from home. (Afterwards, we discovered that it was the president here in the neighborhood to meet with Atlanta voters ahead of his commencement speech at Morehead University.) When at last she arrived from the grocery store, it seemed impossible that we would be able to make it to the graduation ceremony on time. 

My brother-in-law and his mom had gone on ahead, and my sister dashed upstairs, threw on her dress, and grabbed her cosmetic bag. I punched the address into my phone and took the wheel. Heidi navigated while my sister did her makeup in the backseat and my niece handed over the jewelry she had gathered. 

At first, our route on the map app was crisscrossed with red and yellow lines of congestion, predicting that we would be 14 minutes late. But as we drove, the road cleared before us and our arrival time ticked earlier and earlier.

"It says 4:10 now," Heidi reported as we made it through a light without having to stop. "4:08," she updated us seconds later as we rounded a traffic circle. "4:05 now."

"Is that the church right there?" I pointed ahead of us, and it was. One more traffic circle and a left up the driveway. Courtney and Annabelle leapt from the car just as they were closing the doors to the vestibule. It was 4:02. 

We had made it. 

And that was lucky.

Life Lesson: You'll know how it was meant to be, hear the signs, and know they're speaking to you, to you. ~10,000 Maniacs "These Are the Days"

K is for the Kids

We are here in Atlanta for my youngest nephew's graduation, and last night was the Baccalaureate ceremony where each senior's advisor wrote and delivered a tribute to the graduating student. It might have been excruciating to sit through so many remarks about people one doesn't know, but there were only 40 or so graduates (as well as a 250-word limit), and I found myself surprisingly engaged. 

First, as an educator, I was interested in how each teacher framed their remarks, and I wondered how I would approach the same task. Next, as an auntie, I was very moved to hear how someone else saw and appreciated my nephew as the great guy he is.

As the ceremony commenced, one by one each student and their families and supporters were asked to stand as the senior's character and accomplishments were acknowledged, and I craned my neck to see the honorees and their proud loved ones as they were celebrated. The families were universally thrilled and the graduates were silently fascinating: their wardrobes a range from wacky to traditional, their facial expressions a mixture of stoic discomfort and delight. 

And in their faces and the words of their teachers, I saw traces and heard echoes of so many of the kids I have taught over the last 30 years, and I felt their hope for the future and joy at a job well done.

Life Lesson: You're doing a good job. Don't get too down. The world needs you now. Know that you matter, matter, matter, yeah. ~Alicia Keys "Good Job"

D is for Do I know You?

We had a morning flight to Atlanta and as I stood at the gate at DCA, surrounded by people, I had the thought that if I looked for a celebrity I might find one. But I also had the thought that if I looked at my phone I could solve a sudoku, and that notion won out. I maintained my oblivion to those around me all the way down the jetway, onto the plane, and into my seat, where once the sudoku was solved, I read a fascinating book about the lost history of Arlington County and enjoyed coffee and then soda water and potato chips. 

The flight went by quickly and soon we were taxiing to the gate where I sprang to my feet, eager to deplane and find my sister. As I waited, I made eye contact with a platinum-blond woman a few rows ahead and then quickly looked away with a vague feeling of familiarity. How do I know her? I wondered and looked back. She was asking another passenger to fetch her carry-on from the overhead bin, and while I could not make out the entirety of their conversation, I did hear him say "Oh, you're in Congress aren't you?"

She sure is. I realized I was looking at Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. By then we were into the aisle and on our way to the terminal where Ms. Greene melted into the crowd. 

Years ago my sister took our oldest nephew, who was 3 then, to Minneapolis to visit my mom. All of his life he had heard about this place called Minnesota, and who knows what his preconception of it was, but once they got to my mom's house he was surprised. "Minnesota looks just like a house!" he said with wonder.

I thought of that story today as I walked through the airport. My preconceptions were clear: despicable, cynical, delusional monster, but when I actually saw her, Marjorie Taylor Greene looked just like a person.

Life Lesson: I'm only human of flesh and blood, I'm made. Human, born to make mistakes. ~Human League "Human"