Book 2 2008

I finished book #2 for 2008 this evening. Wow, I think I'm ahead of 2007 by about three months.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris is funny, irreverent and reminds us that we should be grateful not to have such a sibling. If I had such a brother, I would pour him into a column at the new Cowboy Stadium. I love Sedaris and I'm now reading another of his tomes which will hopefully become book #3 for 2008.

Today was interesting. The kids came back to school today and I saw some funky stuff. There were boys that had 3 different price tags hanging off their obviously new pants. I asked my art history kids about that. This engendered some lively discussion. Mr. Foster said that they were posers. He said that they got the pants at Burlington for thirty bucks and then took off the Burlington tag, leaving the original tag that says eighty bucks. This class meets in the library, and giggles greeted the site of ANOTHER boy walking by with tags swinging.

The kids seemed to agree that this was genuine poser behavior--trying to show that they spent way more money than they did and were willing to demonstrate this by leaving the price tags showing.

When I grew up, that was considered, well, tacky. Minnie Pearl made a statement with a price tag hanging from her hat. It was ludicrous.

I was still tripping about that when I caught up with my friend Mr. D. He said he'd noticed the same thing and as we drove up to 7-11 for our morning smoke and cup of coffee he informed me that some of our students were wearing six or seven hundred dollar outfits. I knew that some of the stuff looked pricey. That's just hard to stomach when the same kid says he can't afford a pencil for art class. I always ask to see their shoes when they say that crap. If they are wearing $200 shoes or have a cell phone or are carrying a Dooney or Coach bag then I fail at sympathy.

Mr. D. told me that some of them spent ridiculous amounts of money on stuff that they'd wear to school and then return to the store. He thought that's why they left the tags on. Regardless, it's pretty silly.

This afternoon we met to work on the school redesign project and it was really good. There was a large amount of enthusiasm and creative energy. I love it when that happens. It's invigorating!

More will be revealed!