How Teachers Name Their Own Babies
Mamacita says: Teachers have a hard time choosing names for their own babies because every name in creation represents a student who behaved like a ______ and told us to _________ and tried to get away with ________ and had a parent who _______ and was responsible for a lot of tears and trembling and high blood pressure.
There are certain names that represent nothing but negativity and certain names that represent smiles and wonderful memories.
I named my own children for book characters.
I’m promising you – there are few, if any, names on this earth that don’t conjure up at least one memory of at least one student. I know I crossed some once-loved names off my list forever. Fortunately, my list of “when pigs fly” names was short, and my list of “maybe because of the love” names was a lot longer.
In the end, though, the book people won out.
It’s sad, too, that there are a few really nice names that not a single awesome kid had, and these names represent a lot of bread-kneading-because-it’s-therapy moments, as in, you give the lump of dough a name and then you beat the every-loving ___ out of it. Things we’d never in a million years say or do or even consciously think about a real student but, well, there ya go. Ditto with a small handful of parents. And administrators. Safe outlets.
I have been very fortunate that the wonderful people far outnumbered the not-so-wonderful people in my career. Thanks to my wonderful people for that. (My own kids still laugh about the way I used to get home from school and almost immediately blast a certain student to smithereens with a video game so primitive we used to give it sound effects with our voices.)
The sound a goat makes still reminds me of that student. “Maaaaaaaaa” was his usual response to anything. Go figure.
The High School Musical That Changed My Life
My first live musical!
Mamacita says: The first live musical I ever saw was “Oklahoma,” during my junior year of high school. There was no turning back. My life was so small-town, so provincial, so limited. I had never realized that my peers had the kind of talent people paid money to see. I had never before seen anything like it.
I was already a huge fan of movie musicals, but this was local and featured kids I knew. I just never knew they could do THAT. I wish there were a video of that production. And to the people who were in that cast who are on FB: Wow. (I saw it three times.) Thank you. You added an element to my life that I still consider wonderful. I will never comprehend the fact that there are people who do not experience as much live theatre as is humanly possible.
When I win the lottery, I will build real theatres for every community, and create 4-year free-ride scholarships for students who participate in music, art, and theatre. That scholarship will include free pizza twice a week, and season tickets to all things musical and artistic within a hundred mile radius. If they want to watch sports, they’re on their own. Sports makes enough money; they certainly don’t need mine, and I don’t want to give them any of mine.
I have nothing against sports except when my tax dollars go to support a stadium instead of an auditorium; I admit: I really resent that and I begrudge it and I wouldn’t let them use my money for that if I had any choice, and I wouldn’t even mind if they used my tax dollars for theatres, but the arts are cast out on their own, not supported. No, I wish I could designate my tax dollars for things I love, not things I don’t. I resent it. I wish my money could go for the arts, not sports. Not even my imaginary not-won-yet pretend fantasy money. But if there’s a production of “The Secret Garden” or “Les Miserables,” or “Guys and Dolls” or “The King and I,” my winners want to see, it’s a done deal. I’ll pay for the gas, too.
I never win anything.
Now I guess I should buy a lottery ticket. These results don’t grow on trees.
Maundy Thursday
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. — John 13:34
Mamacita says: The semicolon is important here; it separates two distinctly complete sentences that have a connection to each other. The new commandment is that we love one another. The second sentence instructs us that we love one another as He has loved us.
Maundy: The ceremony of washing another’s feet
In hot desert countries, barefoot or sandal-wearing people always had absolutely filthy feet. To wash feet like that was considered a humble, mundane, pretty nasty task. It also personifies sacrificial love and hospitality.
