Kallan’s teacher seems like a very nice woman, but Kallan is not clicking with her. At all. Yesterday, Kallan came home with the sad story of how someone’s cell phone had rung during class, and how the teacher sourly identified the offender as Kallan. All of the backpacks (in which cell phones must be stored) are in cubbies, and so I guess the ringing came from Kallan’s general area. But it wasn’t Kallan’s ring-tone, and she checks her cell phone every morning at the bus stop to be sure that it is turned off. However, Kallan could see that there was no point in arguing, and she didn’t want to tell on the cubby neighbor (a boy) whose phone she was certain had actually rung.
So she lost her phone for the day. Which is not that big a deal, because while she is allowed to bring her cell phone to school, she is not actually allowed to use it during school hours. Kallan seemed more upset about the other kids’ perception of her – not as the girl who lost her cell phone for the day, but as the girl who clearly had a boyish ring tone on her phone. I have every expectation that she gets in phone-trouble again today as she goes around proving to everyone that she has a girly ring tone and not the one that rang out in class yesterday.
Kallan’s life is complicated lately.
She had to complete her class valentines last night because she is certain that her teacher told her that all valentines must be brought into class on Thursday so that the teacher can inspect and “clear” them before they are handed out to the class on Friday. According to Kallan (and none of these rules were sent home in any sort of note), she must give everyone in the class a valentine (which is fine); the valentines must all be identical in message except for the writing of the recipient’s name; the valentines must all be the same size and shape, with none being more fancy or decorated than another; if candy is to be included with the valentine, it must be small, store-bought, and wrapped; and finally, nothing other than a small piece of candy may be attached to the valentine as a gift.
Maj, to whom none of these rules seem to apply (except for the “if you’re bringing any valentines, you must bring valentines for the entire class” rule), was planning on adhering to these rules anyway. To Maj, these rules are perfectly sensible and should go without saying. And for her, they do.
But Kallan wanted to write special notes in the valentines of the girls she especially likes. And she wanted to give little charms she made to the girls and candy to the boys. And she wanted to cut out heart shapes for the valentine background for the girls and stars for the boys. But she did none of that for fear of the consequences. Instead, her valentines are lined up on the counter this morning just like Maj’s. All hand-made and all painstakingly identical. She’s proud of them, but they are not what she wanted to make.
Kallan is so worried about everything lately . . . she wrote her valentines in her best handwriting, and used a pencil, because she wanted them to be perfect. In Kallan’s hands, markers tend to go a little nuts. Generally, Kallan covers her marker writing errors by filling in the mistake with a giant colored-marker heart, figuring the recipient never needs to know that she didn’t mean to spell out his or her name with a giant red heart in the middle. But of course, Kallan’s understanding that the valentines all had to be identical in message meant that people with difficult names couldn’t have a big red correction heart in the middle of their valentines.
So she worked in pencil, pushing down extra hard because, “I don’t want one of the bad kids to be able to erase my message, write in something mean, and then get me into trouble.”
Augh!
I don’t know what the teacher actually said. Kallan may have it completely wrong. But because we are going out to dinner this evening (and Kallan only told me about the various valentine restrictions and the Thursday inspection last night), there was no way to check on Kallan’s understanding of things until today. Too late to help. And if I check today and it turns out Kallan is wrong? That she could write special notes or give out charms or make different shapes? I don’t have time to make it right. Sigh.
As I sent her off on the bus this morning, I leaned down and whispered in her ear . . . “I’ll miss you while you’re away, baby girl.” She turned to hug me good-bye, and I continued, “I’ll call you at about 1:30 on your cell phone, ok? Just like yesterday.”
Which got me a huge laugh and a smile as she stepped up onto the bus.
I love that girl.
I hope things continue to look up for Kallan. I hope her valentines are a big hit!
I don’t remember being a kid sucking as much as this.
Things have much improved since then, but geez, Kallan went through a difficult little stretch there.