Smiling Mom

My dad is currently an ele­men­tary school prin­ci­pal and has been an edu­ca­tor for more than 20 years, and in one month is retiring.

Jeff King has spent the last cou­ple years as a co-principal of an Los Penas­qui­tos Ele­men­tary School. He’s rein­ven­ted him­self nume­rous times over his past twenty-something years in the busi­ness. He star­ted as a 2^nd grade teacher, spent time doing admi­nis­tra­tive work in the dis­trict office, as a middle-school math teacher, then a middle school vice prin­ci­pal, ele­men­tary school prin­ci­pal, high school prin­ci­pal, and finally is finishing up his years as an ele­men­tary school prin­ci­pal yet again.

But more impor­tantly my father has begun a revo­lu­tion. It all star­ted with a dream, and morphed into a reality.

His dream? He belie­ved that all stu­dents could learn and be successful.

Revo­lu­tio­nary:
–adjec­tive
1. of, per­tai­ning to, cha­rac­te­ri­zed by, or of the nature of a revo­lu­tion, or a sud­den, com­plete, or mar­ked change: a revo­lu­tio­nary junta.

The day he became prin­ci­pal at Los Penas­qui­tos Ele­men­tary School, he began a revo­lu­tion. Over the past ele­ven years with the tire­less effort of all Los Pen teachers, sup­port staff, and their two prin­ci­pals, Jeff King and Damen Lopez, Los Pen went from a school that was “doing as well as could be expec­ted” edu­ca­ting some of the poo­rest kids in the com­mu­nity; to a school who rou­ti­nely out per­forms their other more affluent neigh­bo­ring schools.

Revo­lu­tio­nary:
–adjec­tive
2. radi­cally new or inno­va­tive; outside or beyond esta­blished pro­ce­dure, prin­ci­ples, etc.: a revo­lu­tio­nary discovery.

Edu­ca­ting poor and under­pri­vi­le­ged kids is my dad’s life work, his pas­sion. I, as I’m sure many of his colle­ges, have got­ten an ear­ful on more than one occa­sion about why it is pos­si­ble, impor­tant, even cri­ti­cal for all under­pri­vi­le­ged chil­dren to be educated.

He along with Damen belie­ved they had a mes­sage that must be sha­red with a lar­ger popu­la­tion than just one ele­men­tary school. They believe that all chil­dren in low-income areas have the right to be edu­ca­ted and suc­cess­ful. As a result, Jeff and Damen star­ted Tur­nA­roundSchools, a com­pany pro­vi­ding trai­ning for teachers based on the follo­wing principals:

* All chil­dren, even those who live in poverty or who are lear­ning English, can be aca­de­mi­cally suc­cess­ful and attend college.
* Public K-8 schools have to power to make that dream a reality.

Now my dad along with Damen is edu­ca­ting teachers, prin­ci­pals, and supe­rin­ten­dents in mas­ses so they can begin revo­lu­tions at their own schools.

Jeff King.

A man who can be quite impos­si­ble and rarely takes no for an answer.

A father, hus­band, educator.

A revo­lu­tio­nary.

–noun
1. a per­son who advo­ca­tes or takes part in a revolution.

Since I can­not be there on Thurs­day to toast my dad at his reti­re­ment party, I’d like to say the following:

You are a man who has chan­ged the lives of thou­sands of stu­dents and teachers. You believe in the uni­que abi­lity of each indi­vi­dual you come across. Because of you and your lea­dership, many chil­dren who pre­viously did not have a chance, do. Because of you, lives have been chan­ged. Because of you, I am a bet­ter teacher. Because of you, this world is a bet­ter place.

The mark you leave on edu­ca­tion is one of high expec­ta­tions, a belief that all stu­dents can learn, hope, and success.

You have ins­pi­red teachers to great­ness, and chil­dren to dream dreams they never belie­ved they could. Because of you, we all are better.

As I’m sure your staff is, I am sad­de­ned to see you retire. But we know you have great things in store. We know that you’ve been called to make a dif­fe­rence in many more children’s lives.

You have begun a revolution.

And we are so proud.

***************************************

Now it’s your turn… do you know Jeff King? Is there a funny story that sticks out in your mind that you’d like to share? A thought or toast? Please leave a com­ment and I’ll make sure he reads each and every one. Thanks!

So last night I had one of those Terri­ble Horri­ble No Good Very Bad parent/child exchan­ges. BC and I just couldn’t seem to work things out. It was an emo­tio­nally grue­ling exchange which left us both sob­bing and exhaus­ted. It made me doubt my skills as a mom. Did I do the right thing? Should I have hand­led it dif­fe­rently? I’m not sure. But did I do the best I could? Yes.

Thank­fully when BC woke up this mor­ning, he came run­ning out of his room, smile on face, straight into my arms. Thank good­ness chil­dren are so very resilient.

Hope­fully BC’s get­ting close to the end of this new defiance phase and all can go back to nor­mal in our house.

I wrote about our exchange over at SVMB today.

OK, first of all this whole inci­dent star­ted with a voice boo­ming from our back room, “No way!! BC You CANNOT wear that!!”

I say, “Hub, I usually let BC dress himself.”

“Uh, Nette? He ‘s wea­ring tights.”

At that exact moment I was taking a sip of my tea.

My tea ended up all over my end table. Hub and I laughed until I almost peed. Then I asked BC to pose for a picture.

This is what I saw:

Just as I snor­ted, it’s the Ger­man in me-my mom says, eClaire pushed BC out of the way to say, “Ohh look at me, I’m sooooo cute.“

BC then eeked his way back into the pic­ture to show me his HUGE musc­les. And his tights. For the record, those “tights” are just long socks pulled up above his knees. His favo­rite way to wear them is with a pair of shorts and his Light­ning McQueen Water Shoes… Zexy, I know!

Then eClaire is all, “Oh but I’m not just cute. I’m funny too! Look! Look! I’m FUNNY, Damn IT.” Well, she might not have said Damn It today.

And then she was all, “BC touched me!! He loo­ked at me side­ways, and I don’t like him.”  I rolled my eyes.

And she was like, “DON’T LOOK AT ME BC!! You rui­ned my life!! Why did you have to be such a pain in the butt brother!!???” Ahem.… excuse me. I may be chan­ne­ling my own sibling angst here… I digress. Hi Uncle J… love you!

And then BC’s all, “OH NO SHE DIN’T“

And then eClaire deci­ded she had enough, “MOMMY!!!! Waaaaa! Why are you laughing?? It’s NOT FUNNY!“

Aaaand Scene.
On a more posi­tive note, when BC was asked to get a sweatshirt because it was still a bit chilly outside, he ran into his clo­set to get his favo­rite sweater.

Ya.

Bwhaahaahaa!! A future in fashion? I think not. Hey, at least he pulled his socks down, at Dad’s request!

So today was just per­fect. Hubby woke up this mor­ning and sur­pri­sed me a fabu­lous love let­ter and tic­kets to a few great plays going on at the reper­tory thea­ter down­town. This is something that I’ve wan­ted to go to for quite some time.

Then we hea­ded off to our local Farmer’s Mar­ket to stand in line for the best cra­pes around. We ate our freshly made cra­pes in the local park, pla­yed tag and just enjo­yed being together on this beau­ti­fully warm day here in California.

I was able to take a nap prior to my brother and girl­friend coming over. We ate outside in the beau­ti­ful eve­ning weather.

The day was great. Just great!

My basic desire for today was to have a day with no family stress, and I think we came pretty darn close! Thanks for such a won­der­ful day Hubby!

And then Hubby went over to my brother’s place to play video games.

Yes, you read that last sen­tence correctly. Video Games.

Hmm, let’s see… nice eve­ning. Like a really nice eve­ning with his wife, insert wag­ging eye­brows, or video games and beer.

He chose the video games and beer.

Yeay for an eve­ning alone, with kids asleep. What mom can’t enjoy that??!!

On another note, I just found out that I won Alli-Fussypants’ weekly cap­tion con­test. She had up a really funny pic­ture this week! Head on over and check it out.

Then click over to her jewe­lery site to see which earrings I won. I chose the Olive Gem earrings. They are so beau­ti­ful! Thanks Alli!

And one last thing.

My mom is the most beau­ti­ful mom I know, inside and out. She would lite­rally give me the shirt off her back if I wan­ted it. Actually she has done that before! She’s also the best Non­nie that my kids could ever ask for. The rela­tionship she’s crea­ted with my kids, hus­band, and me is one in a million. I am so lucky and gra­te­ful to have her in my life.

Mom, thank you for everything. I love you.