Saturday, March 10, 2012

the poetry festival

Every year Mac's school participates in a poetry festival with two other British schools in town. The students participate by reciting original and already published poetry as well as group poetry presentations and performances supported by multi-media presentations.

A couple weeks ago Mac came home and announced he'd volunteered to participate in the poetry festival. Jimmy was convinced he heard "festival" and not "poetry" and thought there would be carnival rides and elephant ears involved. We asked him repeatedly if he was sure he'd signed up for the right thing.

Sure enough, the permission slip was sent home so I knew he was at least on the list of participants. When I told him I'd completed the form and that I was looking forward to seeing his performance, he asked if I was taking time off from work. I told him that the festival didn't start until 5pm so I'd be able to attend sin problema. He looked puzzled, so I explained that he'd stay after school, eat a snack and then the school would transport the students to the hosting school and I'd meet him there. So then I thought that maybe he'd volunteered in order to skip some school and that's why he was surprised that it was an after-school event.

Regardless the blessed festival occurred on Tuesday evening. It was two hours of listening to elementary school-aged children recite and perform poetry. That makes for a bit of a long evening. But Mac and his group did a fun, energetic presentation, and I was very proud of his participation.

But is it wrong to hope he doesn't volunteer for next year's poetry festival????

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