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Being the passionate and responsible mother that I am, and one who would never allow public schooling to stand in the way of my children's education, I find it necessary on occasion to interject a measure of common sense and let my kid's play "hooky" now and again in favor of lessons better taught by life.
I have nothing against teachers; in fact, I admire them immensely. However, the days of old when a teacher could inject their lesson plans with creative solutions to waking up a child's closed mind are dead and gone… believe me, I know.
My parents were both teachers in the public school system and retirement could not come soon enough for them. They could only do so much with both hands tied behind their backs and a smoking gun pointed to their head.
Our children are out of control, parents are less and less involved and our government could be accused of deliberately dumbing down America to more easily control and manipulate its citizens…but let's heap all this onto the weary shoulders of the under-paid and unappreciated school teacher who is little more than a propaganda robot these days.
This story was not supposed to go there. Terribly sorry for that diversion folks.
As I said, I'll be darned if public schooling gets in the way of my children's education so I took them to a baseball game the other day. A minor league spring training game, but baseball none the less.
Baseball is terribly boring to me but the kids love it, and kids should often do what they love as I believe it stimulates the mind and makes them more receptive to learning.
The annoying thing about me and these little trips, at least in the opinion of my kids, is I make them teach me something interesting about whatever it is we may be doing…and if I'm spending five dollars for a dried out hot dog, it better be mighty interesting.
My son told me that baseball is the only sport that keeps statistics on mistakes and failures of the individual player and that a mistake made by a fielder that allows a runner to get extra bases does not count as a hit for the runners statistics, etc, etc…okay honey, just sit down and enjoy your hotdog.
How am I supposed to verify such a response? This is their homework and learning time, not mine! So, I turned the conversation to something I was a little more passionate about.
Did you know cotton candy is made entirely of sugar and food coloring? I guess you could get technical and say cotton candy (or candy floss for you Brits) consist mostly of air, but there is no nutritional value in eating air that I'm aware of, so for the sake of argument, cotton candy has only two ingredients; a little food coloring and a whole lot of sugar!
Eating cotton candy is an absolute must while at the local fair, circus or mind numbingly boring baseball game. And while it would not be entirely accurate to say eating it is only half the fun (actual figures are probably closer to 100%) watching it being spun is definitely part of its allure. Throw in the fact that you get to eat something bigger than your head and it's no wonder cotton candy is such a big hit with children and adults alike.
So where is the lesson in all this? Why does everything have to have a lesson buried in it somewhere? Oh yeah…the kids missed school so they need to learn something or that over-paid self righteous social worker might object to my teaching methods.
Okay, cotton candy is made up of melted sugar and food coloring (the most popular of which is pink) mixed together in a small bowl and is then spun out through tiny holes where it solidifies in the air and is caught in a larger outer bowl. The luckiest person in the entire world, at least in my opinion, then twirls a paper stick around the rim until she has collected enough of this magical treat to ensure a sugar high of at least twelve hours, (five minutes if you're an adult) and although the total cost in material is roughly a nickel, she takes your $7.50, licks her sticky fingers, and wishes you good day.
Because sugar is hygroscopic, (my kid's word, not mine) and has a very large surface area, it has the annoying habit of becoming coarser, harder and less palatable (much like my ex-husband) once exposed to the atmosphere where it must be eaten within a couple of hours to get the most enjoyment out of it.
Oh, and it was created and introduced by two of my favorite people in the entire world, Mr. William Morrison and John Wharton at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair as "Fairy Floss" and sold for twenty-five cents (USD) which equates to $7.50 today, selling 68,655 boxes of the stuff and entering them into the history books…although you won't find these sugar peddling, cavity inducing guys in our public school's history books.
The kids enjoyed their day and whenever you can eat the lesson plan, even the teacher has a sticky smile on her face!
Myla Madson is a family counselor and on Social Services top-ten most wanted list. For more from the mind of Myla, go to http://www.MylaMadson.com
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