Everyone is back to school. They are all dealing with it in their own inimitable styles.
Andy Andy is a funny one. He’s started the 10th grade at Mount Pleasant. Andy had a miserable time in middle school, mostly because the middle school sucks, but that’s a rant for another time. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, he barely passed, (Caroline too for that matter), could never figure out which homework was due when, and, I think, those two years were pretty much a big waste of time. In ninth grade, he hit his stride like nobody’s business. The first marking period he got straight As. For the rest of the year he didn’t get more than two or three Bs. He worked like crazy. The big struggle for him last year, was a conflict with his mom about whether to play a sport. She said yes. He said no. Anyway. He did absolutely NOTHING besides going to school and doing his homework. (he also wore the same pair of shorts every day through December on a 5.00 bet that never materialized). It seems as though, very early last year, he made a decision that he would do academics, and do them well, get the high school thing down, and then see about some extra curriculars. Last year, in the spring, he decided he’d play soccer this year. He loves the coach, who was his history teacher last year. He says he sucks. He says he is the slowest person on the team. And he is having a great time. He seems to have hit his stride. He’s earned himself a place in almost all honors classes. He plays soccer. He is an incredible artist. I couldn’t be prouder. Could not be prouder. He seems happy.
Nick
Nick has never had a single academic problem. He has had talking in class problems. He has had flipping off his science teacher and getting detention problems. But never an academic problem. He does his homework on the bus. Or right after school so he can go out and play. He would rather, I think, be playing basketball with his friends than doing anything. He has eleventy seven pairs of basketball sneakers, which is always exactly one pair too few. But he is kicking all sorts of ass at the middle school that gave Andy and Caroline so much trouble. And the name of which I will not mention, because I hate it so much. Of all things, his favorite class is Chorus. I think because the Chorus teacher is so good. So far, he says, middle school? Is cinchy.
Caroline
Caroline did not do so well in the ninth grade as Andy. I took Caroline to The New School last year for Charlie’s interview. I did it on purpose. I had no idea how it would turn out. The new school is a pretty radical school, with some elements of Democratic Free Schooling, and more elements of unschooling. Caroline left Charlie’s interview last year saying, "I really want to go to this school." I was pretty quiet, except to say, "I’d need you to pay part of the tuition." The next day she had a job. A week later she had two. (She lost the second job, but I didn’t care because the guy she was working for I think had her serve alcohol, and I also think was laundering money for the mob. At any rate, he was a dick.) Over the summer she earned a quarter of her tuition. She’s working on her enabling project, which is putting on three short plays, along with another director. They have picked three plays by Christopher Durang. The first week was a flurry of activity. Last week she noticed that being entirely responsible for her own education was really hard. She’s growing and changing in ways I can almost see. This week she’s on a field trip at Assateague with two other kids and a staff member. She called tonight to let me know she’s not dead, and to say that it was possible that they’ll be evacuated on Wednesday on account of a hurricane.
Charlie
Well. Yes. Charlie. Charlie last week told me in a pretty emotional moment that summed up well how scary the statement was to both of us, "You always want to protect me. But you can’t always protect me from everything. We need to get used to it." I don’t much want to. He had a rough first week. Told me everyone hated him. This school is so different, that it has sort of sent everything into a tailspin. I am holding on for now, and trusting that it’s right for him. But last week it turns out that, actually, he has people to play with when he wants to. Every day I say, "What did you do today." Every day he answers, "I climbed a tree." Friday I picked him up and he had what looked like a rash on his face. He said "DON’T ask about my face." I said "What happened?" I talked to his mentor, and apparently some kids spun him on the tire swing. They appear to have been playing. Charlie appears to have been playing. But the older kids decided to break their record for the highest twisting of the rope before the spinning. He went pretty fast. Apparently one of the kids tried to stop him and was knocked over trying. The rash appears to have an element of centripedal force. His mentor suggested that he could write them up. I suggested he could have just puked on them. At any rate, there appears to be no harm. He says he won’t spin on the tire swing for three years. He refers to it as the tire swing incident. And he’s starting to admit that he kind of, a little bit, likes this school.
