The Next Generation


Making apple pie at school
Originally uploaded by smaynor.

I spent Tuesday morning shooting video and taking pictures for Max's class as they made apple pie for part of their apple unit. It was great to meet kids that I haven't and see the class in action. I also enjoyed seeing Max outside the safety and comfort of our family. His two best friends are in the class, and they are thick as thieves. They have such loyalty for one another, making sure the others have a seat or a swing or a snack. I also noticed that my son is a little like his father. Now Brian was an exceptional man - loving, kind, generous, wise -but he was also quite lazy. He LOVED reading his New Yorker all morning rather than work on house projects. Not that I would qualify reading all morning as lazy, but he just enjoyed sitting reading, thinking, or resting far more than tasks. On Tuesday, I saw a little bit of that in Max. At first, the apple pie was a novel idea. But soon, his eyes wandered over to the block center or to the paintings hanging on the wall or to me as I took pictures. I heard him say, "This is taking too long." Of course, I, being the sinfully proud parent I am and worrying about what the teacher thought, raced over to him and quietly whispered in his ear the inappropriateness of that comment and so forth, which I'm sure for Max was quite annoying. But the truth was, it really was taking a fair amount of time, and in his opinion, it was too much "work" for him. He would rather play or hang out, much like his father used to do on a Saturday morning. And notice the crossed legs in the picture. Look familiar?

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