Hafa Adai : Wait. Their Culture? And Athletic Events

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Wait. Their Culture? And Athletic Events

football 'n Ironman athletes

I finished two challenges: postcard poetry for 31 days to encourage writing in community, and 100 push-ups for 22 days to bring awareness to Veterans and mental health issues. Small challenges interspersed into a routine helps seemingly chaotic and uneven days. Those push ups will have to continue.

This week, both kids reiterated through our conversations, how teachers make a huge difference in their learning. John-Pio's response to the rundown of his day: "First period, boring; Second, fun; Third, fun; Fourth, fun; Fifth, fun; Sixth, not fun. Seventh, fun." Only traumatic thing about his middle school transition is having to wake up to get there. So far, so good.

Misa's challenge was battling with the idea her teacher suggested about culture. We are going to have a culture unit where you can ask your parent to come in and share about their culture. Misa was like, "My parent? Their culture? Is the assumption my parents and I are from different cultures? That teacher is like, assuming my parents don't teach me about where I come from. Or that I am not my culture and my parents are more my culture than me?" Wow. The epiphany was that she knows enough about where she came from to present it to her class and doesn't need a stinkin' parent to come into class to present an overview of her culture and race and ethnicity.

Her other thing was in Spanish class when she asked her teacher how to say, "offend," in Spanish and her teacher said, "Just stick to the curriculum. We're learning this right now." Double wow for squelching curiosity and a reminder to me not to squelch curiosity. Other than those two instances in the five days of 7th grade, both kids are eager to go to school and excited about learning.

Lots went down this week. For one, I declined three Happy Hours on Friday in favor of sprawling on the couch and floor mats with wine and cranberry juice by 4:30pm. Saturday was running, John-Pio's football game and my try at action shots with a Nikon D70, topped off with a heaping dose of Mavis Staples taken with my broken iphone. Sunday NFL football in full swing and Ironman volunteering, with a lot of cheering. Hope you all got outside!