If it’s the winter of certain years, it’s time for the Winter Olympics. That quadrennial occurrence where we all watch sports that we’ve no idea how to play or score, but that we’re going to be glued to anyway.
The last time the Winter Olympics happened, the Monster was just shy of two years old, and we’d not yet gotten a diagnosis. We had some inklings that something was wrong, but that was then. Continue reading
So after yesterday’s “ooh, he has a soul” moment… it’s time to step back to things that are actually about the kid. 😉
Many evenings, while my wife’s making dinner, I take the time to get the Monster’s homework out of the way. It’s generally more meant as an effective use of time – every moment that’s spent doing homework while one of us is busy is a moment later that can be used for fun when both of us are available. His class, “Together We Grow”, actually follows the real kindergarten curriculum, so his homework is little different from what other kindergarteners in Baltimore are working on. Continue reading
This is more of a “my failings” than “anything else” kind of post.
I’m not the most observant Jew, but I’d consider myself a decently-good one who tries relatively well to hew to the practices of Conservative Judaism.
For those of you who are long-time readers, you know that I’m a gabbai at my synagogue. I spend a Saturday morning, every few weeks, up on the bimah at my congregation, helping to run the Torah reading. I find it very rewarding – not perhaps as rewarding as I find reading a portion myself, but certainly involving less of my personal time at home trying to prep for participating in the service, and certainly less nerve-wracking when one bears in mind that I have extreme stage fright, even after reading Torah for nearly thirty years.
A few weeks ago, a commenter here left a note about how my reference for my eldest – the Monster – made him increasingly uncomfortable… and I thought that I’d circle back about it after I’d had some time to put in real thought.
So… the Monster. As I mentioned in my first ever blog post, we’ve called him ‘Monster’ since he was two days old. It’s a name that’s stuck, and he actually does answer to it. And yes, he does know his real first name, both in English and Hebrew. Continue reading
The Monster is not a big fan of the doctor’s office. And still there are times that he’s going to have to go without wanting to do so.
Since we’re in the middle of flu season and the Monster had off on Friday, I volunteered to take him to the doctor’s office to get his flu shot. Continue reading
So yesterday afternoon, the operations guy from BCPSS called me to let me know that the bus would be switched immediately. Another company – not Durham – would be transporting the Monster effective immediately, with bus run times that were far shorter – 30 minutes in the morning, and 35 in the afternoon.
Except by 4:45, the Monster had still not materialized. Continue reading
This has been a really bad winter, weather-wise.
Granted, we live far enough into the “South” that folks around here don’t seem to have a grasp on how to handle winter weather. Snow sends folks into a tizzy – even the threat of it is enough to send folks to loot the local supermarket. Continue reading
So while I’m harping on the school issue…
As you all know, I’m not thrilled with the school that’s the host to the program that my Monster attends – GHEMS is one of the lowest rated elementary schools, performance-wise, in the entire Baltimore City public school system. This is contrasted with the school the Monster is actually zoned for, which is one of the best schools in the city.
This doesn’t mean that the staff at his school isn’t doing their best or isn’t interested in his success. Continue reading
Yesterday evening, while I was driving to the curling club, my phone started to hum with incoming messages. The transportation head had finally deigned to respond to me, saying he’d get back in touch with me by noon. The CEO of BCPSS followed by telling him to contact me sooner, and he asked if he could call me at 9.
Now… I don’t like dealing with these kinds of things over the phone. I prefer to have a written trail to document what was discussed… but I also know well enough that it would drag the process out, so I agreed.
So at 8:45 this morning, the head of transportation called me at the office. Continue reading
So it’s now nearly two days since the late bus… and nothing.
As a few of my readers of my tweet feed have suggested, I should go full-bore and start causing more trouble to get a response – any response – from the school system. The problem, really, is the other item that was in the news… and frankly, that’s going to have everyone’s attention here for a few more days.
The fact is also that I shouldn’t have to go this far to get a response for my son. The city should already be aware that the bus was late, they should have already responded or have a response ready, and they should have an apology for the trouble that it caused. Continue reading