The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[21stamps]

My kid!!!!!!!

@SteveBrickNJ and @ajrwdwgirl - Please advise!!!

Long, but bear with me please...
I picked up T and we got home a little bit ago... he has a huge school project coming up at end of month. “Wax Museum.” We have to read a biography, build a booth with props, he has to be in costume and character.. he also has to make a button for people to press, and at that point he tells about “himself” (memorized oral presentation in character)

Originallly he wanted to be Walt Disney, apparently a kid was also prepared and had a book ready. Then T said LeBron James then Nelson Mandela. I urged him (due to current social climate) to pick someone who has an easier costume.

He chose Henry Flagler. Ok, fine.
Then last night he says “No, I want to be Beethoven” Ok, fine too.

I emailed his Language Arts teacher and told her that I ordered a book online from B&N and would pick up in the store today, I was worried that the school library would not have a book on either subject. I also printed out both orders of each subject - marked “1st choice” and “2nd choice”.

All good, right?

Nooo!!

He came home with this!!



He already turned in the title as his project. (The subject/book was due today)

What should I do????

I don’t want T to end up on the internet as “white kid doing cultural appropriation”, especially not on the heels of CovCath.

This event is put on in the Auditorium during an evening for people to attend. Not just something in class.

I was Sacajawea for a similar project when I was kid..(not wax Museum, but in character).. that was fine back then.. but I don’t think it’s fine in today’s world. I’m so upset!!!! Should I email the teacher again??

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

My kid!!!!!!!

@SteveBrickNJ and @ajrwdwgirl - Please advise!!!

Long, but bear with me please...
I picked up T and we got home a little bit ago... he has a huge school project coming up at end of month. “Wax Museum.” We have to read a biography, build a booth with props, he has to be in costume and character.. he also has to make a button for people to press, and at that point he tells about “himself” (memorized oral presentation in character)

Originallly he wanted to be Walt Disney, apparently a kid was also prepared and had a book ready. Then T said LeBron James then Nelson Mandela. I urged him (due to current social climate) to pick someone who has an easier costume.

He chose Henry Flagler. Ok, fine.
Then last night he says “No, I want to be Beethoven” Ok, fine too.

I emailed his Language Arts teacher and told her that I ordered a book online from B&N and would pick up in the store today, I was worried that the school library would not have a book on either subject. I also printed out both orders of each subject - marked “1st choice” and “2nd choice”.

All good, right?

Nooo!!

He came home with this!!

View attachment 354338

He already turned in the title as his project. (The subject/book was due today)

What should I do????

I don’t want T to end up on the internet as “white kid doing cultural appropriation”, especially not on the heels of CovCath.

This event is put on in the Auditorium during an evening for people to attend. Not just something in class.

I was Sacajawea for a similar project when I was kid..(not wax Museum, but in character).. that was fine back then.. but I don’t think it’s fine in today’s world. I’m so upset!!!! Should I email the teacher again??

Yes. E mail her with a brief explanation and ask for a phone conversation on her prep time or her lunch time. She will be impressed when she hears your voice explain your feelings on the matter. E mails have no vocal inflection and that's why I suggest the phone call.....but it needs to be done tomorrow or the teacher will claim it's too late to change. Good luck composing the e mail to pull off my suggestion. Report back tomorrow. I care

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Yes. E mail her with a brief explanation and ask for a phone conversation on her prep time or her lunch time. She will be impressed when she hears your voice explain your feelings on the matter. E mails have no vocal inflection and that's why I suggest the phone call.....but it needs to be done tomorrow or the teacher will claim it's too late to change. Good luck composing the e mail to pull off my suggestion. Report back tomorrow. I care

You know what @21stamps ......not every teacher looks at their e-mail as often as I do.
To be on the safe side, write the teacher a note tonight and ask your son to walk up to the teacher first thing tomorrow morning....look her in the eye and say: "Ms. so & so, my mom wrote you an important note....thanks"..T smiles warmly
This will get your phone call appointment set up and underway hopefully by 12:30pm at the latest.
I hope this helps.

 

[Rista1313]

Hey! I am Nate! You probably have seen me throughout all of the forums but I haven't been here! I love to chat with people and make new friends!

Hi Nate! Welcome

 

[21stamps]

Yes. E mail her with a brief explanation and ask for a phone conversation on her prep time or her lunch time. She will be impressed when she hears your voice explain your feelings on the matter. E mails have no vocal inflection and that's why I suggest the phone call.....but it needs to be done tomorrow or the teacher will claim it's too late to change. Good luck composing the e mail to pull off my suggestion. Report back tomorrow. I care

Thank you, I will do that right now.

I’m so upset, and now he’s upset. He thinks I’m forcing him to do a subject and doesn’t understand “why can’t you let me do what I want! It’s MY project!”

How do I explain this to an 8 year old?? This project has been giving me grief since it was announced, for exactly this reason. He keeps picking people who he shouldn’t be and I don’t want to tell him that. I just don’t want to have that conversation.

Worse, Iowa Testing starts tomorrow (a standardized test which takes up the bulk of the school day).. kids are supposed to be “stress free, plenty of sleep, good healthy breakfast”.

My kid is in bed crying after slamming his door.

I thought we had this sorted out!!

I. Am. Failing.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

What happens to make up all those days? Teach until June 30th?

Oh my gosh. Is the school year being extended as a result?

I feel like that happened to me once when I was a child.

So far the students only have to make up three full days and two of those were done last week. The kids were scheduled to have Thursday and Friday off due to conferences and an inservice day for teachers. So the only other make up day is Easter Monday. Our state goes by minutes now instead of days so an extra 5 minutes was added to the school day at the start. But if we have another snow day we start tacking on time at the end of the school year. If we hadn't had any snow days our kids would have been over the minute limit for the state so a little is forgiven that way too. As staff we have about 24 hours of time to make up on our own that we have to report on, one of the days off were "forgiven" by our superintendent, we are normally not required to make up our time for 2 days.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Yes. E mail her with a brief explanation and ask for a phone conversation on her prep time or her lunch time. She will be impressed when she hears your voice explain your feelings on the matter. E mails have no vocal inflection and that's why I suggest the phone call.....but it needs to be done tomorrow or the teacher will claim it's too late to change. Good luck composing the e mail to pull off my suggestion. Report back tomorrow. I care

@21stamps I agree with this. I would also explain your concerns with T as well.

 

[Rista1313]

How do I explain this to an 8 year old?? This project has been giving me grief since it was announced, for exactly this reason. He keeps picking people who he shouldn’t be and I don’t want to tell him that. I just don’t want to have that conversation.

It's important to have this conversation though! He needs to know WHY you are making him change.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

@21stamps I just read your other post about T being upset. It might be difficult to explain the situation to him. There are a lot of adults who don't get it either. If T is set on researching these historical figures I'm sure there is a way of portraying them in a way that is respectful. It's a tough gig you got going on here, you aren't failing.

Maybe he should portray Roy Disney, that would be close to his first choice and equally important to Disney history.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

@21stamps I just read your other post about T being upset. It might be difficult to explain the situation to him. There are a lot of adults who don't get it either. If T is set on researching these historical figures I'm sure there is a way of portraying them in a way that is respectful. It's a tough gig you got going on here, you aren't failing.

Maybe he should portray Roy Disney, that would be close to his first choice and equally important to Disney history.

We have a 4th grade teacher who also has her class do this wax museum every early June. I LOVE to go see the children perform. One male character that I was impressed with was Henry Ford. Does T like cars? Other ideas....Babe Ruth, Johnny Bench, or any astronaut.

 

[21stamps]

It's important to have this conversation though! He needs to know WHY you are making him change.

@21stamps I just read your other post about T being upset. It might be difficult to explain the situation to him. There are a lot of adults who don't get it either. If T is set on researching these historical figures I'm sure there is a way of portraying them in a way that is respectful. It's a tough gig you got going on here, you aren't failing.

Maybe he should portray Roy Disney, that would be close to his first choice and equally important to Disney history.

I don’t know how to explain the situation. His entire life I have made it a point to surround and/or expose him to all different people, nationalities, beliefs, circumstances. I don’t want him to look at anyone differently than he did before..I don’t want him to see differences in that way.

I’m not sure if this rambling makes any sense, I don’t know how to put what I’m feeling into words. I thought I had sidestepped the issue entirely, and my kid went rogue.

He has had an interest in Flagler since he was 5 and old enough to understand the significance of the railroad, as well as visit the museums. We make a point to stay in Flagler properties when we go to Florida(not counting Disney).

I have a not-so-mild obsession with Beethoven, I play his music on the piano often, and have been since T was a baby. In turn, every night now, T says “Alexa, play Beethoven piano music” when he lays down to sleep. I use Beethoven as a motivational tool, and T knows quite a bit about him. This should have been easy... and easier props than Flagler, so I did push him a bit.


I’m emailing my concerns to the teacher, and hope she will understand. I’m also going to have to talk to him, I may try to blame it on props first, and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll figure out some way to explain.

 

[21stamps]

We have a 4th grade teacher who also has her class do this wax museum every early June. I LOVE to go see the children perform. One male character that I was impressed with was Henry Ford. Does T like cars? Other ideas....Babe Ruth, Johnny Bench, any astronaut.

He could have picked any of them! We talked about Johnny Bench and Neil Armstrong, he wasn’t excited about either. They went to the biography book section at their school library this morning, for kids who either were still undecided, or wanted another book. I’m sure most of those subjects were on the shelves. At one point this weekend he was asking for Pelé.. I steered away for same reason. But in hindsight, That would have been better!

It was due today.

Should I wait to talk to him in the morning, give him an opportunity to choose someone else, prior to my email regarding Beethoven? Maybe allow to switch subjects altogether and explain to the teacher why it all happened?

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

He could have picked any of them! We talked about Johnny Bench and Neil Armstrong, he wasn’t excited about either. They went to the biography book section at their school library this morning, for kids who either were still undecided, or wanted another book. I’m sure most of those subjects were on the shelves. At one point this weekend he was asking for Pelé.. I steered away for same reason. But in hindsight, That would have been better!

It was due today.

Should I wait to talk to him in the morning, give him an opportunity to choose someone else, prior to my email?

I don't know. That question is more parent-ish than education-ish. Go with your gut. My sincere best wishes. Good night. Talk to you tomorrow

 

[21stamps]

@SteveBrickNJ , I didn’t know that other schools did this. It’s a big event at our school every year.. 3rd grade sounds like the only difference.

 

[21stamps]

I don't know. That question is more parent-ish than education-ish. Go with your gut. My sincere best wishes. Good night. Talk to you tomorrow

Thank you!

 

[donaldtoo]

Just finished watching “Inside Story: Caddyshack” on A&E, and now watching “National Lampoon’s Vacation: The Inside Story”...classics...!!!!!!!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I don’t know how to explain the situation. His entire life I have made it a point to surround and/or expose him to all different people, nationalities, beliefs, circumstances. I don’t want him to look at anyone differently than he did before..I don’t want him to see differences in that way.

I’m not sure if this rambling makes any sense, I don’t know how to put what I’m feeling into words. I thought I had sidestepped the issue entirely, and my kid went rogue.

He has had an interest in Flagler since he was 5 and old enough to understand the significance of the railroad, as well as visit the museums. We make a point to stay in Flagler properties when we go to Florida(not counting Disney).

I have a not-so-mild obsession with Beethoven, I play his music on the piano often, and have been since T was a baby. In turn, every night now, T says “Alexa, play Beethoven piano music” when he lays down to sleep. I use Beethoven as a motivational tool, and T knows quite a bit about him. This should have been easy... and easier props than Flagler, so I did push him a bit.


I’m emailing my concerns to the teacher, and hope she will understand. I’m also going to have to talk to him, I may try to blame it on props first, and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll figure out some way to explain.

You could try with T asking him to save it from a project in the future. Believe me, there will be plenty of them. I did about three on Walt Disney.

This is a very long story, but a few years ago in college, I had a project where we had to read a fictional book which connected somehow to our families. Most of my classmates did one about their families set in their native countries, connected to a war in which a family member fought, or set in a time period when their families came to the US. I'm a mixed bag racially, my family first came over in the 1600s and were all here by the 1800s, and aside from my step grandfather, no one served in any wars in the 20th or 21st centuries. So since I knew what Native American tribe I came from, I researched and read a book about them.

From my research, I don't think any natives would be offended by a kid dressing up in a costume for a school project as long as it's done sensitively (no darkening of the skin, slang terms, etc.). If it were a movie about a Native historical figure, different story, but honestly, I think they'd be happy to have representation. Totally up to you, though, of course. Just my two cents. I get where you're coming from.

 

[donaldtoo]

Alrighty gang, out for now...!
Sweet dreamin’/mornin’ to all...!!!
See y’alllllll...!!!!!!!

 

[Gabe1]

Unloading the bicycles at Fort Wilderness:

View attachment 354177

Thank you so much! Great Photos.

Over the last few years Security Huts have stopped us in Ubers frequently asking us where we are going, scanning magic bands to verify we had dining reservations etc., so hearing they will likely let me and my bike into resorts is good news.

 

[Gabe1]

And it is 6 degrees with a windchill of -13.

Groundhog Stew