CSotD: Conference time
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Ah, Edge City evokes such memories!
I think it's well established that one of the joys of being a grandparent is watching your kids go through what you went through. Parents' Night ranks right up there.
I don't remember much from Parents' Night in elementary school except that we had to prepare special packets of our work, which often included making folders out of construction paper and leaving them on our desks when we left that day. I think, in the younger years, everything was a bit less specific and the "he has such potential" sessions didn't begin until fifth or sixth grade.
After that, it was an annual event: They'd hear about it that night and then I'd hear about it when they came home. Not a chew-out, just … yeah, yeah. Okay.
And then I went through it as a parent. The benefit in that case was that my son with all the great potential was the elder one, so that only the burden on little brother came in September, when he had to persuade teachers that they didn't have to sit on his chest, that he'd get the work in and that he probably wasn't the one who just threw that.
But I had a SO who reversed it, which meant younger daughter was expected to also be an honors student. There may be no heavier burden than a great potential, but an older sibling on the honor roll — or a couple of them, as in my case — is pretty close.
They've greatly improved Parents' Night at most schools these days, starting with the elimination of Parents' Night in favor of setting appointments throughout the day for actual sit downs, and, though some schools haven't figured out that not everybody can walk off the job at will, most seem to offer a range of scheduling that makes it work.
And while it doesn't eliminate all the "great potential" issues, they're also getting better at distinguishing different learning styles that can be dealt with, as well actual disabilities that can be addressed and only the truly neolithic attribute all academic shortcomings to character issues.
(And, no, I don't know why those Neanderthals all wind up on school boards and in state legislatures, but leave us not get into that right now.)
Upgraded parent conferences also haven't done away with the perennial fact that the parents you most need to meet with seem to be the ones who don't show up, nor the issue, as demonstrated in this 1999 "Close To Home," of whether talking to parents is the same as reaching them anyway.
However, they have improved greatly in this way: I don't have to go to them anymore!
Oh yeah? Well, two can play at that game
While we're on the topic of conferences, Pearls today is a blatant plug for the fact that Stephan Pastis is, indeed, appearing at the upcoming Billy Ireland whoop-de-doo (not sure that's the actual name of the event) next weekend. It's a gathering of cartoon aficianados that only happens every three years and remains focused on cartoons rather than costumes and movie promotions, so that missing it is more significant than missing some other events.
Still, he should be ashamed of this shameless, shameless self-promotion.
And I'll tell him so, because I will also be there and will be keeping you up-to-date on all the exciting goings-on at this sold-out extravaganza, with on-the-spot blog entries from the campus of the Ohio State University.
Don't miss a single episode of this exclusive (in perhaps a somewhat limited sense of that word) coverage!
Celebrate Stupid!
I don't have much to add about today's Rip Haywire except that, if you enjoy foolish humor, this send-up of hard-boiled adventure is a pretty good example. And this is a pretty good example of that.
And here's an advantage of being silly to begin with: While utter lack of continuity and frequent use of the reset button is a flaw in most strips, in Rip Haywire, it's just part of the landscape. The fact that he has finally declared his love will be forgotten by our next exciting adventure.
Inappropriate humor
Some things you just shouldn't joke about. Okay, I do know people driven mad by the lack of variety in the weather out there, so it's not that today's Free Range is wrong in that sense.
Still, I could have gotten through the day without this particular earworm, which I will now share for the benefit of anyone not already infected:
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