Monday, June 26, 2006

So the drama fizzled out

Mrs. Doohickie talked to the principal at the school she was leaving and there was no plot to keep her there against her will. The letters were sent out to the few remaining teachers to let them know their jobs were still there and to try to convince them not to leave. It didn't work.

At this point, all the educational staff has found other jobs or are close to doing so. I don't think the school will reopen in the fall, which is a damned shame considering what they did on a shoestring budget over the last year. Even so, that shoestring was too much for the CEO of the charter school corporation. Tightwad.

So he had something that was benefiting kids, but that wasn't good enough. For some reason, he didn't seem too interested in educating kids at his charter school; he just wanted to max the profits.

Anyway, time to look forward. We drove by the school where Mrs. Doohickie will be teaching this fall. It's a public school with quite the Blackboard Jungle look about it. She is convinced she can do some good there and is actually eager to start. This amazes me. I don't understand it, but I love her for it. The charter school was similar (though not as hardcore) and she did some good there, so who knows?

Well anyway, that seems to be settling down. I was going to discuss my boys. I guess I'll just start with the basics. The older, 18, one I'll call Viola Player (or just VP) because, as you may have guessed, he plays viola. The younger one, 15, plays piano, so I'll call him Piano. (I decided to call him Viola Player because with the "a" on the end, viola carries a feminine connotation.)

So VP... if you read MetaChat (or click on the links in my second post), you know he had a rough time his freshman year at school... straight A's in high school, stumbled in college a bit, took a leave of absence....

So the big question is how he would land... would be a bounce back onto his feet, or a splat? He landed a job (his first) waiting tables at Cracker Barrel. And he seems to be doing okay. I think it's perfectly fine if he just needs to take a break from having to excel for a bit. All through high school, all those Advanced Placement course, all the pressure... let him regroup and decide what the hell he wants to do with his life. It's nice seeing him unwind before our eyes. He's starting to earn some decent tips, and I think that's good for his self-esteem.

As for Piano... well, he's visiting friends up in Michigan. We shipped him off Friday and he'll be gone for another week. It's amazing to me that he just gets on a plane and leaves us, without even looking back. From the phone calls, it sounds like he's having a blast. And he's found a few pianos to practice on while he's up there. He comes back on July 3, and Mrs. Doohickie leaves on the 4th for a trip to visit her sister and her new nephew. She's pretty geeked up about that, especially with the job search behind her.

Okay... that's enough for now.

No comments: