what goes around……….

My daughter (little scholar) has the same teacher for 4th grade that I had for 1st grade. (It’s weird…she doesn’t look like a corpse.) I will always remember the teacher because it was she, who let the Santa secret out of the the bag. Back in 1980 (when I was 7) I still beleived my grandpa (who worked on the A. pipeline) worked for Santa. He was away the majority of the time, but came home in the middle of the night Christmas Eve. My first grade teacher told me I was crazy, and that my toy-delivering Santa was a myth. (There is no such thing as Santa.)

This would be a sad story if it it happened to anyone else, but for me this tale turned out in favor of irony. I was an easy student (strange but gifted). My daughter is a challenge (strange, but a submarine in relation to federal tests.)

It just so happened that I let Little Scholar watch West Side Story. So instead of ignorant, Santa-believing rhetoric, my daughter has a more, even-edge tale to tell. What did the Anti-Santa, conservative-educator think of this?

"When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way, from your 1st ciggarrette to your 1st dying day."

 "When you’re a Jet let them do what they can, youv’ve got brothers around you’re a family man."

How about……

"I want to be in America……. everything free in a America…….for a small fee in America!"

Then there is…….

"I’m sociological’ly disturbed. I disturbed! I’m depraved on the count of I’m deprived!"

I wonder, will this teacher will tell my daughter that social inequality is a myth? Will my daughter start to mis-trust her domestic education?

I believed in Santa because my parents told me a credible tale, but the public education system de-railed their teachings. I can’t …..I won’t……I musn’t be tuned out by an education system that I do not respect academically, socially, or systemically. I refuse to bend down to C+ credability.

I hope my daughter becomes a imaginative, rebellious, and un-testable adult – I hope she thinks life is a musical – I hope she stays up late, waiting for Santa to show  on Christmas Eve, after he laid- off her great-grandfather. I hope she asks about my grandfather’s death.

I want her to consider things like blind-curves and guard-rails. I want her to lend her ears to pixie dust and elf-like rumors. I want her to know the difference between practicality and originality. I want her to debate…….not calculate. I want her to think and hope……not fail and sink.