And the rest...

There are five children in my daughter's swim class. On the first day, when there were only three children, the instructor really impressed me with his thoughtful, individual attention and judicious, appropriate use of each of the children's names. On the second day a new boy, Lewis, joined the group and I began to hear his name and the other boy's name, but the two girls had suddenly become "the girls". On the third day, a third boy, Kevin, joined the class. This not only solidified the girls' collective appellation of "the girls", but I began to hear "Kevin", "the boys", and "the girls".

Does this instructor's ability to differentiate names stop at the number 3? Is 4 his "crow busting" number? Shoud I be concerned that he is in charge of the safety and well-being of my quiet, nascent swimmer?

The instructor's name? I think it's...The Professor.

Comments

Shez said…
I'm not a fan of group classes. My kids did 3 group sessions at the Y and didn't learn to swim. I ended up putting them into private lessons. Shira started swimming like a fish, but Ben still could not swim. I realized that every time the instructor wanted him to do something he didn't want to do, he batted his baby blues at her and she backed down.

mean mom then found another swim instructor, a male this time who coaches a swim team. Ben was swimming before the first lesson ended, and he was as mad as hell with me for foisting this tyrant onto him. LOL. I Learned my lesson. This summer I signed them up for more swim lessons (more stroke development than anything else). This instructor was also a male, swim team coach. The difference in my kids' swimming is amazing.
July 31, 2008 at 3:24 PM
Lynne said…
You don't know the half of it!

But I will rise above my desire to pick on small children (collectively known as "the boys") who at least have the courtesy not to physically violate my child's space even if their errant behavior takes all of teacher's time and attention to control!

Phew - glad I rose above it.

These rinky-dink local lake swimming lessons have been okay for the last few years. She's behind in her stroke development but can actually swim. This is a bonus given her pool - gene pool, that is.
July 31, 2008 at 4:18 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plainsies, Clapsies

A ball bouncing game from my youth instructed the player to throw the ball up ( plainsies ), throw it up and clap ( clapsies ) throw it up and roll your hands ( roll the ball ) and touch your shoulders ( tabapsies ). In trying to locate the rest of the ball bouncing chant, I found out not only is my “tabapsies” a mondegreen , but also the motion – touching your shoulders – isn’t even the correct movement! You are supposed to clap your hands behind your back and say “ to backsies .”  Yeah. That makes much more sense. Being only slightly deflated by this discovery, I will still share my exciting news.  In an attempt to counteract the stretching of my wrist from doing front squats two days in a row, I pulled out the tabapsies motion this morning.  This, in itself, is not newsworthy.  However, I grabbed both shoulders with all five fingers!!! Again, not exciting unless you know that when I was nine years-old, I broke my left elbow doing a running c...
Read more

Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution

Image
In preparation for celebrating the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, here are a few videos that I hope will inspire you to at least memorize the brief, but powerful Preamble. First, here is my first attempt at video editing with the bare bones Windows Movie Maker (no ability to step through frame by frame with sound, or ability to mark stops before cutting). My daughters are reading the Preamble to the Constitution from the little book I carry in my purse. They can recite it by heart, but it I thought it would be a little different (and a little less exposed) if they did it this way. Let's not even talk about the 20 takes due to laughter. If you knew it as a child, don't worry, it'll come back to you as Barney shows in this video. Finally, a little treat for my sci-fi loving friends. And if memorizing and reciting The Preamble in creative ways leaves you wanting more, you can find out which Founding Father you...
Read more

Why I am an Objectivist

I am a human being who values her life on this earth above all other things. The right and good is that which contributes to my life and the wrong and evil is that which destroys it. Every action I take must pass through the gates of identification before being pursued as a value which I understand will contribute to my life. Happiness is my ultimate goal. I understand the importance of identifying, applying, pursuing, and achieving those values which will contribute to my life, not just in the immediate sense (which every child understands), but in the long-term sense (which develops with experience). This is not to say that I’m really good at always identifying, pursuing, and achieving those values, or that I remain consistent in my applications of them; merely that I had already understood that this selfishness was the key to my happiness when I was relatively young. The importance of the fact that I understood I was responsible for my own happiness can not be overemphasized here. W...
Read more