My dad knows how to do everything. This was my opinion as a child, and it’s remained consistent throughout my adulthood. My parents came to visit two weekends ago, and my father installed my new vanity and bathroom light, making everything work out with my fussy and strange 1961 plumbing. Plumbing sticks out too far…
parents
Easing Parent Concerns Over Common Core
Last night I attended my youngest son’s first-grade open house. It was held in the school’s media center (what we used to call a library), not in the classrooms, and served as more of an explanation about the differences between kindergarten and first grade than a meet-and-greet. The open house introduced me to a first-grade…
Style: We All Have It
What do you have in common with Philippe Petit? Well, first you have to know who he is, I suppose. Philippe Petit is the famous French high-wire artist who, on August 4, 1974, famously walked 200 feet between the two buildings of the World Trade Center on a 55-pound rope strung 1,368 feet above the…
Getting Back On Track
Almost all of us have our days. What kind of days? Those days when no matter how well-prepared you feel going in, events seem to find a quick and unexpected way to unravel in your face like a rogue wave. Very few of us seem to escape these kinds of days. Take yesterday, for example….
Thoughts on Pineapplegate?
I never would have thought that one of my favorite exports from Hawaii and the animal that inspired my favorite cartoon character would play such an interesting role in the discussions surrounding education reform. Yet there they were, the pineapple and the hare, driving students and teachers to distraction. In a bit of absurdity that would…
You Can’t Get No Satisfaction?
So the big news last week was not that I had somehow convinced myself to volunteer to be assistant coach on one of my sons’ little league teams. As unexpected as that was—and, believe me, it was about as expected as the announcement that The Mailbox has hired an Elvis impersonator to edit the magazine—the…
I Wash My Hands of Responsibility
By now you’ve no doubt received all of your National Hand Washing Awareness Week greeting cards from friends, relatives, and secret admirers. It happens this time every year, our mailboxes stuffed with sincere or humorous cards reminding us to wash our hands to fight off the never-ending assault of germs and bacteria. There’s always that…
That First Open House
Do you remember your first school open house? Or do I need to ask Dr. Peabody and Sherman for their Wayback Machine again? Because I sure remember mine. Back then, I was the new deputy on the dusty streets of middle school, flush with the power of my own corner classroom and a license to…