Julie Pippert: Using My Words

I slinked into the geometry classroom with a nasty attitude. That year began my third year in the terrible town and horrible school district that I had grown to hate. Each day I plotted how I would be able to escape. At the library---no Internet back then, friends---I looked up information about boarding schools, and mailed weekly inquiries to get brochures. I researched different schools in the area, and even called a few to find out if I could transfer. My mother scuttled each plan. She was sure it was simply typical teen angst; nobody actually enjoyed middle or high school. I was sure anywhere was better than there. So, stuck there another year, I began the year with a surly demeanor. Geometry, I thought, another math, another waste of time, another horrid teacher. The previous year I'd had a newbie teacher for algebra and had learned nothing. The truth is she was actually a mathematician, not a teacher. She began the year with the goal to make us all stellar math students who ...

I want my daughters to be successful---personally, educationally, and professionally. That sounds like a boring statement of the obvious. It is. What's not so obvious is how to achieve that. There are many obstacles: personal foibles (mine and theirs), a larger world to work within, and so forth. The key to achieving goals successfully is to break them down into realistic, smaller parts. We all need to feel a sense of completion and accomplishment. It motivates us, keeps us engaged. So I'm focusing on the here and now: school. How can my kids be successful in the classroom? As I researched factors that contribute to success in the classroom, I ran across a lot about assertiveness, primarily assertiveness with humility. Ah ha, I thought, I'm not surprised. But I am worried. Why? It's because of the feedback I consistently get about Patience from teachers. I'd like to think that each and every teacher my daughter encounters is in the classroom out of a love of childre...

Yesterday Jon and I got called in for a Parent and Teacher Conference. For Persistence. Age 3. The main point of the conference was to say we have a really bright, creative, independent, social, and cute kid. But then the teacher---who, by the way, is an incredible teacher---got around to what she really needed to talk to us about. That would be the incident between Persistence and the Priest. As you may or may not know, we've been lucky to send our kids to Catholic preschool. It's a wonderful, small, sweet, connected, caring, loving, welcoming church. The attached preschool is the same. (If you knew me, you'd know what a serious whiplash-like change in opinion this is for me. In Texas I learned to be very, very afraid of anything claiming to be remotely connected to religion. The mere mention of "God" or "Jesus" sent chills down my spine. And I am someone who always felt very connected to church, believed, had faith, so forth. I hesitate to even use th...

Yesterday I once again spent quality time at Patience's elementary school. I've recently been fairly critical about district level decisions that I strongly believe negatively affect children. However, the good thing about spending time in the school with the teachers and children is that I get the chance to see how teachers creatively keep children engaged in learning and challenge them with great new lessons. In short, I get to see teachers succeed despite frequently not being enabled to do so or supported adequately. The kindergarten teachers are a fantastic group; I don't think, from what I've seen, that a child could get anything less than a really good one. They truly seem to get joy from the children. In addition to the teachers, the children spend quality time (once a week) with the music teacher, the art teacher and the coaches. One coach we know from gymnastics, where he taught a couple of Patience's classes. He's a tall young man, and seems patient an...

Blue Dog , by Patience , 2007 (Please do not reprint, use, or reproduce.) The other day we got a note home from school about the art program. We get notes from the school practically every day, promoting this or that cause, cajoling for volunteers, or asking for some sort of donation, but this one caught me. In our school district---which I consider to be a relatively wealthy district, with a high tax base and amazingly generous donations from individuals and the community---the school lacks (won't allocate?) the funds to provide the art teacher with the supplies she needs to teach our children about art. Art. A subject I consider essential. I come from a family of artists. I've created and sold art. For a while, it was my income. Luckily my husband provided one too or I might have starved, but that could also have been my lack of marketing ability (and motivation). Luckily my ancestors were craftier. When my great-grandmother became a single mother, she used her artistic talen...

Once upon a time, I scoffed at running. "Oh, la," said I, "I only run from trouble." Technically, you could say that my daily morning run is, in fact, from trouble. We are trying to avoid the tardy Patience will get. She's got three, and I'm already in the sights of the Attendance Office for our Egregious Offense of taking a family vacation during the school year (forgive me my ignorant assumption that I, the parent, got to make these sorts of decisions). Then we had a little trouble getting back in routine after our trip, and, well, that's when we racked up the three tardies. So. Once the worst of the hot weather allegedly broke (allegedly = I am still wearing tank top and shorts) I set this pretty hard and fast rule of No Driving, Our Feet Work Fine and We Care about our Planet Earth. Scheduled departure time: 7:45 a.m. School bell: 8:05 a.m. School tardy bell: 8:15 a.m. Actual departure time: "For goodness' sake GET DOWNSTAIRS NOW! I don'...

On Saturday, as we drove to Patience's soccer game I noticed the two schools we passed on the way to the fields were decorated merrily in red ribbons. I might not even have noticed, had it not been for my two sharp-eyed lookouts, who catch everything and catalog it for me. Over. And over. "Look Mama," Persistence cried happily, "Wed wibbons! All ovah!" "Wow, so there are, red ribbons, how pretty," I answered absently, scouting for a parking spot. "Wed wibbons!" she squealed. "Umm hmm," I replied, guiding the car into a spot. "Wed wed wed wed wibbons!!" And so on. On Monday, instead of our usual power walk to school---aka the 'we left too late to saunter and oh well it burns more calories woo hoo!' walk---we were running so late that I had to drive. This annoys me. I feel ridiculous. The weather is great for a walk, everyone benefits, and we live close to the school. And yet, here we were, driving, in order to not b...

I believe in preschool, in general. I sent my kids to preschool. In fact, Patience seriously benefited from it, and Persistence is currently enrolled in preschool. Believe it or not, I've gotten criticized for sending my kids to preschool: "Oh, it's not really school at that age, how ridiculous!" Oh yes it is, school is a place you go to learn things. My kids learn things at this place they go, which is literally called A School. "Kids don't need to learn anything before kindergarten. They just need to have fun." Yes. And no. I actually think kids benefit from preschool, but I don't think it's for everyone or required. My kids enjoy learning (anything and everything) and the right preschool can be fun. Some parents and kids can accomplish this at home, but others, like me, appreciate a school for this. "You just want time away from your kids. It's not really to benefit them; it's really to benefit you." Here's the fallacy of...

Going to my happy place, my happy place...I'm going to my happy place where all is well for me. A winery on a beautiful Pennsylvania summer day is my happy place. Sitting on a breeze-cooled shady patio surrounded by vineyards that our children are running through happily---and non-destructively---with their cousins, while the grown-ups sample all the red varietals and talk of nothing with many words and much laughter. I was warned by those who travel the path ahead of me: life just gets more complex and demanding the older your kids get. I could understand this, but I didn't get it. Not a wink. In the same way you can't prepare people for parenthood, you can't prepare them for elementary school-hood either. See, after age 2-3 (give or take), we had this semi-golden age of 4-5 (give or take). This age can be great: still a little bit of baby and sweet, but also mostly capable and independent. This happily meant that Patience's frustration level dropped way lower than...

I went through the car-rider line today to drop Patience at school. We talked about the hall and landmarks that lead to her hall that leads to her classroom. We reviewed the route three times. We talked about what to do if she feels lost or uncertain. I reiterated my confidence in her, her ability to do this, to be fine. She agreed. We pulled up to the drop off spot. She jumped out of the car with her backpack and identifier tag. She walked to the entrance, looked at my (paused) car, gave a little wave, took a deep breath, put on her Resolute Face and walked in to the school. I only had to yoga breathe for five minutes. I have not called the school. She is fine. And this afternoon she will be very blase on the outside and very proud on the inside that she---on her own---achieved another Big School goal. Patience was never a child for "I do it myself" or "No! Me do it!" or "Back away Mama, I indepewent!" like Persistence is. She preferred babying, help, som...

Last night was the Big Kindergarten orientation. We walked in with misgivings and concerns. We expected/hoped to have them appeased. We wanted to leave feeling ridiculous in ourselves, in our worries. We wanted the school to show us how awesome it is. We walked out discussing home schooling and wondering whether any private schools would still take on a charity student. Let me ask: what does orientation mean to YOU? How about this: an introduction, as to guide one in adjusting to new surroundings, employment, activity, or the like. Me too. Here's what it means to our local elementary school: Keep parents waiting outside in heat and humidity until 6:00 on the dot at which point you throw open the doors, herd them through the entry hall like cattle and then...that's it. We were ushered into the school where it was every man for himself. We stood at the end of the entry hall and noted with dismay that the main corridor split off into two directions. We had no idea where to go, who...