Playing Student at Back to School Night

Last night was Back to School Night at the Middle School for Middleman. It started with a free hot dog dinner... if you serve free food, they will come. I pitched in a little in the meal prep and geez, that time was priceless. Lots of sage advice on handling teenagers flew around during the assembly line work. Thanks, ladies.


Following the meal and a welcome from the principal, the students with parents in tow completed a super-shortened school day. A bell rang and we headed for the first class...gym. The gym teachers worked hard to fill the 8 minutes and warned we may have to fill the extra time by running laps...huh? Isn't this pretend school? All concentration was lost as I imagined us old-fogies hoofing around the gym... thankfully the bell rang... onto the next class.


We moved through Middleman's schedule, sitting at his desk and glimpsing his view for a few moments. We heard the philosophy, guidelines and expectations of each of his teachers...got to size them up. They gave us varying ways to contact them and were quite sincere in their desire for us to use them. I couldn't help but be impressed by the number of teachers who off-handedly expressed a love for their subject! Their pleasure at starting a new year was leaking out everywhere. It was contagious. I even appreciated hearing the "new" late work policy - the third "new" late work policy in three years. They were not ashamed of improving it and working to pull the best out of the students. Not even a hint of a "this is the way it's always been done" attitude. I liked that.

We also gained an understanding of the amount of energy consumed by our son each day. He needs to hike from one end of the building and back no less than five times a day. Doesn't leave much time for socializing, daggumit! Must be why he loves getting to school early and eating lunch.


The demands on Middleman's time, energy and attention are great. Back to School Night helped me know caring people are in the building, willing to help...gives a Mom great comfort. It's going to be a good year!