Literature, Science, and the Arts

This has been a good spring for Mister at school.

We started out with science. Last year, Mister won a first prize ribbon for his science fair project. It was the first year that the school had a science fair. This year, the fair had trophies for first place in each grade, and Mister was determined to win one.

Much like last year, choosing the topic was a last-minute affair. I wanted something that was actually an experiment Mister could conduct, that it could be measured, and that was fairly straightforward.

This year we went up in complexity over last year. Last year, we could do the whole experiment in about half an hour. The major work was in putting the display up and typing up the analysis of what he observed. This year's experiment was to test the strength of various glues. This would take repeated gluing and testing over a couple weeks since we'd do it at my home instead of his mom's. And we needed to let the glue dry in between tests. Had I been really thinking, I would have glued five or six test bonds for each glue type all at once and then we could have done the whole experiment in one afternoon. But we managed nonetheless to get it done on time.

Mister was pretty good about doing the work. I guess he put in a good thirteen hours on the project from reading to writing to typing to doing the experiment and helping with the display. He even used my drill to prepare the popsicle sticks for gluing. It did take a while for him to get into the project. He would kind of resist working when I had interrupted his playing, but once he accepted the idea that he couldn't just do something fast and get back to playing (and knowing I wouldn't do the work for him), he'd throw himself into the experiment.

Anyway, the project involved gluing popsicle sticks together, hanging them from a wooden scaffold, and hanging a basket from the bottom stick. Then Mister would add pennies (only post-1983 pennies to keep the weight constant) and count how many it would take to break the bond. We'd do the experiment multiple times.

The main problem was that the basket was only able to hold about a hundred pennies and this wasn't enough to break the bonds! I added weights (rocks) to the basket and still the bonds wouldn't break! Plus it looked goofy with massive numbers of rocks taped to it.

So after many attempts to fix this, I built a mark 2 device from the original that used a binder clip to hold the glued sticks horizontally and hung a plastic baggie instead. So we got some rotational force from the weight of the pennies going and we could add many more pennies. This was a success and Mister went through five rounds of tests, recording the pennies needed until the bonds broke. I showed him how to measure and average the results, set up a table for him to enter the data, and made the chart for him. He also wrote and typed up all the sections of the experiment flow. Gorilla Glue was the strongest by far. Glitter Glue didn't hold up so well.

So it was a success. Mister could explain how our initial plan didn't work, how we adapted, and then how the experiment worked with the results. And Mister won his grade's first prize with a trophy that was ridiculously huge. Indeed, Mister would have won the entire school's prize since he got more points than anybody else including those in grades above him. Yes, I'm proud of him. And proud because he did the work. Oh, I helped him where I had to, don't get me wrong. But I made sure he did the work and questioned him as we did the work so he'd understand what we were doing.

I took pride in the packaging. My goal up to now has been to have a science fair project in a box. I've used paper boxes from work instead of the standard giant folding foam boards everyone else used. They've been engineering marvels, I must say. The whole thing is made from the box with fold out panels that pop out when you take the lid off. The lid, placed as the base, added some structural integrity to the cut-up lower portion. Just slide a popsicle stick brace down and voila!

Of course, Lamb had to do her own experiment while I helped Mister. And now she wants a trophy just like her brother. And next year she starts school, so I'll have two science projects to oversee! The pressure!

The arts part of his spring was the selection by his art teacher of one of Mister's art pieces. It was a replica of a traditional African mud print. It was pretty neat. And pretty neat that he was one of the few from his school to get this honor. It was a big deal in Ann Arbor with a big event at a downtown restaurant with local officials speechifying and different businesses hosting different schools. The children were introduced individually and received a certificate; and we headed off to see his art. The family eating underneath his piece was very gracious in ducking while we took Mister's picture with his art. When we finally get the picture back, we'll frame it and put it up with his certificate. This was actually well-timed. We kept the trophy in Mister's room at my home rather than his mom's. His mom figured that since I helped, it should go here. So I framed the certificate and we put it in his room at his mom's. One of the little compromises necessary in divorce when raising a child together.

Last was the literature part. No prizes were involved but we went to an event called literacy night at Mister�s school recently. Had I known it was a faux-Oscars theme with a red carpet, I would have worn my tuxedo. When I saw the two hottest teachers in the school (sadly--for me--married) dressed in formal black evening gowns I kicked myself. It was not to be my night, clearly. Anyway, the focus was the display of writings by the various students. Mister wrote a story about how siblings break and lose your toys. Egad, was this a hit piece on his little sister? I shuddered. But Mister also interviewed a couple other kids about their experiences. And it was amusing. Mister protested that he named no names. Yeah, nobody would ever know you are writing about your little sister, I quipped. But it wasn't actually mean-spirited as I feared. It was a sort of I-feel-your-pain piece. No you are not alone! Lots of people are annoyed by younger brothers or sisters. As the youngest in my family, I should be offended. I'm sure my sister and brothers can testify to my sterling nature as a child and my absolute devotion to the sanctity of private property. But it was nice to see Mister doing well in this area. He doesn't like to write. He loves to read. But writing, not so much. I emphasize that the ability to write will serve him well in whatever he decides to do for a career. I note that my job is all about writing. I hope he comes to like writing as I do.

So this was a nice spring leading up to the final couple months of school. Lietrature, the science, and the arts. A scholarly hat trick, eh? Mister knows he will go on to college. He knows that it is expected of him and I try to emphasize that it is an opportunity. It is a difficult sell, but I do try to make sure he knows that getting an education is an opportunity that he must not throw away. I am always grateful that my parents made me know that of course I would go to college. I was the first to go to college and even in 11th grade, I had no idea of what college really was. I had to fill in a form about how many years of college I planned on and I filled in two years--surely that was more than enough after twelve years in school? But the important thing was that my parents pushed me on the road to going to college. It was longer than I thought it would be, but I traveled that road to my destination. In Michigan , if polls are to be believed, too many people even today don't appreciate the importance of getting an education. The union jobs in the auto industry that created a middle class from high school graduates may be disappearing, but the assumptions of that fading reality lives on. Can you succeed without college? Sure you can. But you go with the odds. And college provides a little insurance that you won't reach a plateau at some point in the future that you can't rise above because you don't have that piece of paper that you dismissed when you were young. So I take my job seriously to make sure that Mister assumes he will go to college. I emphasize the importance of learning how to learn because you can't stop learning even when you finish school.

And his college years will be here before I am ready for it, I am sure. Pretty soon it will be ice cream social time and summer vacation. Another school year has nearly flown by! And my son's childhood flies by, too. But if he emerges from this childhood with the tools to succeed as an adult, I've done my job. I want him to grow up to be a good man, happy, and successful. I am proud of him today, and if I am to be proud of him in the future, I have to be a big part of his childhood that shrinks every day. Success in literature, science, and the arts in grade school is a good start to a promising future.