A Stress-Free Stranger in Somebody Else's School

I took a little walk on the mainstream side today. My nephew, who is in third grade, invited me to be his "special person" at his school's Special People Day. I went to his school at 8:45 a.m., sat through a little program, then sat next to him in his classroom as the teacher did a SmartBoard demonstration and set us all up with a little math game to play together.

So much of my life has been dedicated, over the last dozen or so years, to advocating for my kids that it was kind of disorienting to be in a school where nobody knew me, and I had no agenda to pursue. No administrators keeping an eye on me, no teacher I needed to have a word with, no fear on my part or anybody else's that my presence would be disruptive. Not even any volunteer work to do; it was other people's duty to push the cake and coffee. I was just another relative of another child.

It was interesting, sitting in that third grade classroom, to see that the math my nephew and his friends are being taught is the same thing some of my son's classmates are still struggling with in middle school. I could have worried about the cords strung around the room to make the SmartBoard work, or the way having homework and behavioral compliance posted on charts in the room could make some kids feel, or the bunching of desks that pretty much guaranteed that kids would know if a classmate was struggling with work. But ... nope. Not my problem!

Liberating, it was.

Of course, since then, my daughter's called from the school nurse to complain of ear pressure, and I've heard about a political hassle involving my son's class. Worry, worry, worry. Peace never reigns for long, does it?