Can't wait-No Bread-No nothing else! Just to let all of you know the truth "I'm a blogging parent".

Some of you might be interested in this follow up to the Class Report interview I did with my kid Abraham. If you'd like to see the original, Get on the Web- search Classreport.org- State? Missouri- City? Independence- School? Truman high school, class of 74, Look for the review column and select ' Teach your parents well'- and you're there. This article titled Teach your parents well encapsulated a few very strong opinions and some off the cuff,down right insulting language. You may remember "Bush is a Fag" as representative, a crass statement of the kind I could never have coined, much less have gotten away with saying in that venue. I was surprised at the time, but let Abraham have his rant since he could offer examples and personal experience for his opinions.

Last Friday Abraham came home with a class paper he needed to return to school with a parents signature. On one side of the page was a short article on the history of the White House followed by reading comp. questions, on the other the title "If I were President " as the leaping off point for the meager essay he had written. The teacher's red ink included the following comments, "I'm displeased at your disregard for this assignment, "Very Bad Attitude!", and "Disrespectful". Abraham had done several things she objected to: he had completely blacked out the image of the Presidential Seal, circled and crossed out a picture of the White House, answered the question "Who lives in the White House now." with "stupid George W. Bush, capped off his essay by writing "I would never want to be president,because I hate government"., all on top of which he drew pointy dragon crests on the pictures of the cute little kids pictured pondering over the essays title.

I was left with the long weekend (presidents day) to sort out many ideas and feelings. I have never shirked stepping into the fray and taking up issues which have risen since Abraham entered public school. I've tried to use a certain("let's think about this to see what we all can learn") approach to my intervention. My appraisal led me to think this time around,here was one not worth much effort. To think that the teacher had subtracted 1/2 point for calling Bush stupid and that she had not more thoughtfully encouraged the fact of having an opinion made me think of pettyness and small potatoes.

Together we erased the art of personal opinion, undemonized the cute little kids,un-blacked the Seal, renovated the White House,wrote 'President George W. Bush,solved spelling,logic and fact problems with the essay,and modified Abraham's last words to read "I don't think I'd want to be president. It sounds like a hard job and things are really messed up". Unseen on our side of the table I encouraged the kid to have well formed opinions he could communicate well. I reminded him that he was not the only person around who he might share sentiment with. I discouraged him from defacing class papers until after they came home and asked him to tell his writing teacher that we had spoken and he understood things better now.

By the way, this teacher likes 60's bubblegum, mild R+B, jazz pop, and classical music. Abraham told me that one day she spoke to them of her hope that they all get a good christian education. I stopped by her classroom moments after class let out one day only to catch her sticking a piece of Bologna wrapped around mayo into her mouth. All that says a lot.

Can't Wait---No Bread---No Nothing Else!