Purim, Pi, Grief

And the dragons of 49th Street

Today would have been “Marilyn’'s” 27th birthday. Those of you have been around for awhile know that the death of my young friend, by a combination of a suicide attempt and medical errors, has been a source of at times almost unbearable grief for me for the last few years.

Here is an article just published in Splice Today where I discuss the differences between the sudden death of Marilyn at such a young age and the death of my father, after a long and happy life. I’m not in favor of death in general, but my father’s was much more peaceful.

Meanwhile, it is Purim. I think that literally zero of the students I end up teaching as I go about my travels are Jewish, well, maybe one a few weeks ago… but I wish they would celebrate Purim anyway because it sounds like so much fun. I have been reading about Israeli children dressing up as Emily Damari. Some have dressed up as other fallen heroes. We have superheroes right now, as well as in a long past.

The kids will be celebrating Pi day, at least at some schools, with pie cooking contests and bake offs. I love it when the schools do things that give the kids very concrete ways to show their competence and enjoy themselves doing something productive. So much of school to urban poor kids just seems irrelevant and pointless, judging from their behavior. I made it fun when I taught full time (though they still threw pencils at me when we had to do prep for the standardized tests.) As a sub I try to make the day something different from what they expected. While upholding the standards of the schools to the best of my ability, I throw in a few fun things. When the kids ask for a bathroom pass, I tell them to have a safe trip and watch out for dragons. I’ve convinced legions of school children, including high schoolers, that there are dragons in this neighborhood. Right around 49th street.

It was fun yesterday when a kid asked me where I’m from. Coming from sixth graders, this often leads to the question, “Are you Mary Poppins, Miss?” To which the answer must be, “Yes. Who else?” This kid was surprised and delighted to learn that I live in the neighborhood and walked to school just like her. It’s a funny mix of things to be, ways to live, but as I say in the article, I never was going to be “normal.”

Whatever that is.

I loved Holly the Math Nerd’s post on Pi Day. I have this dream where Holly teaches math, I teach social studies and our friend Mark Judge teaches literature at our own school. I’ve got a science teacher for us too, but she’s not a public figure. I love teaching kids to read and write through social studies, and with all that is going on with curriculum being taken over by the far left, well…

However, no one asked me, and I keep my politics very strictly out of my work. I wear no symbols other than cat necklaces (which I suppose are a symbol of my worship of the cat goddess but no one minds.) I am careful to execute the teacher’s plans and uphold the school’s standards to the best of my ability, while showing as much kindness and humor to the kids as possible. The eighth graders are really fun. Their grip on reality is about where mine is, so we can go a long way with theories of dragons on 49th street.

Meanwhile, the flowers are finally coming out.

A few weeks ago, two of the smartest girls in a class with reading levels from maybe kindergarten to eleventh grade all in the same classroom, came back to class early from lunch. One, first the other, my guess in an attempt to escape the loud chaos of public school cafeterias. They had already told me how much they love to read, and one was incredibly jealous that my mommy was a librarian and when I was her age (fifth grade) I was allowed to read ALL THE BOOKS. All of them.

As we discussed that reading is one of our favorite things, one of the girls started to sing the old song from The Sound of Music, “My Favorite Things.” The three of us sang it together, in one of those moments that makes it all, including the cold that hung on for six weeks, worthwhile.

I have confidence that spring will come again!