#1 Son is a smart boy. He's one of those irritating kids that makes A's and B's without ever cracking a book. Everyday, I ask him if he has homework. Everyday, I get the same answer from this mop headed, 6'1 inch kid...."No."
Back before Christmas, I insisted that he allow me to quiz him in preparation for his Science exam. He hemhawed and greatly protested saying he didn't need me to, etc. He was not going to rob me of a June Cleaver moment, by golly. He produces about 5 pages, front and back full of Science questions, with words like "protozoa" and other foot lawng words that I could not pronounce, much less have a clue what they mean.
We go through the entire mess of papers and he knew the answer to every single question, except for one. He aced the Science exam and got a 99 on it. That's my boy. It's like this in every subject for him. Every subject, that is, except Band.
When I was in school, Band was the ONLY subject I could count on getting an A in. It was and probably still is like that for most all American kids, except mine.
#1 Son plays the saxophone. I dreamt of the day he would come home and delight me with songs like "Yakety Sax" and "Night Train". This kid has musical talent running all through his veins. Both sides of his family have or have had professional musicians. His father is in Los Angeles this very moment preparing for the Grammy Awards tomorrow, for the love of Johnny Cash, in which he and his band are nominated. He can harmonize and even sing bass. He has natural rythym and a natural ear.
Progress reports came home today (not to be confused with the Report card at the end of the 9 weeks) and he has A's and high B's in everything.....except Band. In Band, he has a D. A D!!!!! We have this discussion all the time....How in the world does one make a D in Band???? He goes through the same thing everytime, he hates Band, he hates playing Sax and wants to switch to drums but the band director won't let him. (I don't agree with that one bit).
This band director is different than most. She insists they practice regularly and have us parents sign a card saying they have practiced. Apparently, it works because her middle school band is better than any I've ever heard. My fear is that in a few years when he's applying for colleges that the one he really wants to get into well raise an eyebrow over that D in Band in Middle School. He will be pissed off and probably try to find some way to hang it on me.
I sound like the Charlie Brown schoolteacher to him. You don't think about stuff like this during pregnancy. "What To Expect When You're Expecting" didn't cover this in any of that book.
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3 comments:
Will "maybe he'll grow out of it" help? Talent will show one way or another. Maybe this is like Democrat parents having a Republican son? Musician parents with Engineer kids? The math and science skills are very impressive and might be the key to a future scholarship.
I thought of you this morning and I have my fingers crossed for you guys. Good Luck!
So, I'm really late on this (I msomehow missed it the first time!) but I wanted to let you know Aaron got an F (!!!) in band a few 6 weeks ago. I was ballistic, of course. Oh, and Aaron plays sax too, maybe it's a sax player thing, haha.
It's kinda sad, but, in the whole school band atmosphere, saxes don't get much action. The coolest woodwind out there and they don't get a lot of versatility in concert band. He knows enough to take it up later if he gets into jazz or something. I'm still grieving over no "Yakety Sax" though.
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