...When All is Said and Dunn

As the theme song to the TV series “The Jefferson’s” goes, my daughter Rachel is “movin’ on up”. Moving up the educational ladder to junior high--or intermediate school as they call it in our school district; they're the same thing.

It’s been a month now since the school year began and I am now getting acclimated to the drill of dropping off and picking her up at the school she now goes to, Oak Avenue. While I have yet to draw any conclusions as to what the inner workings of the school are all about (i.e., the policies, teachers, and administrative staff, but I’m sure I will be delving into that later), some things are obvious right out of the gate.

I am talking about the things that I see and experience on the streets in front of or around the school as the daily dance of students coming and going commences. Now that the initial newness of the first few days of school has worn off, the progression to school gets gradually slower as the desire to arrive diminishes.

The slow motion parade of students walking up Oak Avenue in the morning is almost like a death march based on the blank expressions on some of the students' faces. Maybe they are not quite awake yet or maybe it’s remorse over the unfinished homework in their overloaded backpack. Possibly, it’s the little obstacles like the homeowner who has set the timer on his sprinkler system to go off at exactly the same time they are heading to school. As if this time in their life isn’t angst-ridden enough, this guy has to soak them before they get to school.

But when the school bell rings at the end of the school day, it’s as though these kids have been transformed. Most have become little balls of energy, jumping, running, and goofing off in all those adolescent ways that are special to this time in their lives. The girls are trying to be cute for the boys and the boys are trying to be oh-so-cool for the girls. Hormones are raging and the genders are discovering one another quickly.

One luxury I have is the ability to drop off and pick up my kids at school. I know, based on the numbers of kids I see walking, a lot of parents don’t. Having known and seen many of these kids grow up through the years, you get to know their personalities. You also know which kids are the ones you want yours hanging out with and those you don’t.

What I have begun to notice in the after school procession home is a lot of inner mingling of known and notorious bad seeds hanging out with some of the kids I knew were on the right track the year before. It’s a problem inherent in the system. When the schools meld together in one location, their past histories can become lost or go unknown. It’s a drawback of the walk home that it gives them time together to get into trouble; it’s always been that way. All I can do is hope that the parents of the good seeds can cut off the influence of the bad ones before their friendships grow roots too deep.

With more kids walking to and from Oak, you would assume that the driving would be lighter than the carnival of horrors that surround the elementary schools. I would have hoped that the drivers dropping off at an intermediate school would have grown and become educated along with their children, learn by virtue of history and doing. You would assume that wouldn’t you? Well if you did, as I did, you would be wrong.

If anything, the problem almost seems to have escalated. I have seen some of the most mind-boggling stunts going on in front of and around the school drop off that it makes dropping my son Alex off at Cloverly Elementary almost a pleasure, and I never, ever thought I would say that.

I don’t understand what the major mystery is for people when it comes to drop off zones and turn indicators. Both are so incredibly easy to use, if you just use them. Maybe it’s just a personality thing, a basic disregard for fellow drivers and citizens. It’s a motoring arrogance that these twits have, mistakenly believing that they are the only person on the road. That they can pull away from a curb without signaling or looking to see if anyone is coming. It is a lesson that they are inadvertently teaching their children as they walk to meet their parents after school.

As an example, the other morning I watched as a parent dropped off a child in front of the school and do what I just described, pull away without looking. Then later that same afternoon, I watched the same child step off the sidewalk in front of oncoming traffic-- without looking--and cross the street without a pause as a car had to slam on its brakes. It was the same combination of ignorance and arrogance that the parent displayed while dropping her off. It was as though she was deaf or had some sort of death wish. In any event she didn’t seem to grasp the massive mismatch between a human and an automobile.

So keep your eyes on the acorns and the nuts when driving around the mighty Oak.