Timing is Everything.

Last night was Open House at the Middle School.  Now I don't know if Open House has always been during the last half of may but I was really questioning the timing of this event.  There are 14 school days remaining, less if your student is in 8th grade because the last day is 'graduation' and another is the field trip to Six Flags.  So we have 12 days of school left and tonight is the open house.  I think they should have had this event in April when I was still pretending to give a shit.  To clarify, I didn't actually give a shit in April either but in May I have stopped pretending that I do.

The week before emails and paperwork were sent out for a fundraiser. Again, I question the timing.  A third of your students are heading to high school in two months.  How many of them are going to give any effort at all to raise money for this school?  You should have send all the info to the incoming 6th graders. At least they have a vested interest in the results. Their pending departure was half of the reason we are not participating.  The other half is because the Computer Lab was cited as a reason for raising funds.  I have two outgoing 8th graders and neither one was set foot in the Computer Lab since 6th grade.  Whenever I hear that any funds are needed for maintaining our technological edge, I dismiss it for the same reason your mother wouldn't buy you yet another Barbie doll.  You already have a room full of them and you don't play with the ones you have.

You know what else they've never used? They've never used the 3D printer that was purchased for the Tech Class during their first year at the school.  Sam finally got into Tech the last semester of his final year and he didn't even know that they had a 3D printer.  Tech is very popular because, as I've said before, they watch movies every week.  If I ran the zoo, I would change Tech to Movie Appreciation and then have them watch Citizen Kane and Potemkin and write an essay to compare and contrast the symbolism derived from their different political backgrounds.  I went to a Liberal Arts college and could discuss this with you.  "You've got to be kidding me?", you might say but it counted towards a Fine Arts credit and is one of the reasons that I kick-ass at trivial pursuit.  I assure you Sam will leave his tech class none the wiser about engineering and no more valuable during quiz night down the pub.  That's a lose/lose anyway you look at it.

So last night was Open House and I didn't really want to go.  Sam didn't either because, and I quote, "Naaaaah, Man....I am outta there!"  John took Tom.  They were only gone about 15 minutes so I can only assume we didn't miss much.  

As I look back this morning, I think I may have missed out after all.  If I'd have gone, I could have seen all of my fine coloring and scrapbooking displayed on the walls.  It would have been my one and only gallery showing. I could have brought little red circle stickers and placed them on some of the pieces so it would look like they'd been purchased.  I could have worn some avant-garde outfit that no one understood and stood in the corner with a cocktail while John explained my motivations.  "Now, you see how she colored each of the letters in the name 'Brent' in a different shade of blue? That signifies the artist's state of mind as she was working on the piece."  And, oh my god, I could have been hiding subliminal messages all this time.  Dammit, what was I thinking???  Who was the artist that hid the name Nina in his painting? (It's Hirschfeld. I just googled it.) That could have been me but with far more interesting and colorful phrases.  I am so kicking myself.

Now all I'm left with is my Sweary coloring book and a sea of lost opportunities.   <sigh>