I Pied the Principal

We’re new to public school.   We have five years of experience at private school and after that amount of time we’ve figured out how things generally go, but its like we’re back in first year’s again, muddling through until we figure it out.

This year for my daughter so far there has been this thing called Castle Quest.   Stuff happened where the teachers dressed up I think.   Then there was Boosterthon which may or may not have been the PTA (I wasn’t sure).    There was also a “fun run” that the school was raising funds for.   I wasn’t sure what was related to our child’s classroom but I’d get snippets coming home from my daughter from time to time.

Then there was an email or newsletter that explained this fun run and boosterthon were in fact the same thing and the theme was Castle Quest.   What?  It wasn’t until today that I go the whole things straightened out.    Here’s how it nets out:

The school wants to raise money so they hire a company to help them (and take a cut of funds raised for their time).   That company was Boosterthon.    Boosterthon has a theme for the event that gets the children excited about asking Aunt Maurice and Uncle Suzy to pledge money.  The company has a lovely web site on which you can create a page for your small child and not only pledge per lap, but send via social media the link so Friend Fred and Cousin Clyde can add to the total.

Then there is the race.  Its set up so you can win.   The children get a t-shirt that has the event name on it and the teachers have a sharpie.   Every time your child runs around the little lap set up they get one box ticked off on the back of their shirts.   After thirty-five laps they’re done.

But back to the money raising part.    We come from the Montessori school background in which you’re asked to contribute to the Annual Fund to help with things not covered by the cost of tuition alone.   Public schools need help too.   So my husband and I pledged what we thought was a reasonable amount.  My in-laws and my parents also pledged per-lap to help.

That’s when the presents started coming home.    My daughter was hitting “tiers” of donations with the three pledges.   She got a bouncy ball and a fidget spinner and some dart game with feather darts and something else I can’t remember because it’s still in the box.    She also got a skateboard.   A clear skateboard that turns on with LED lights and is the hottest toy in our house after it gets dark outside.

So that was the fundraising part which I thought was a lot of presents going to our child and less money going to the school but perhaps people are incentivized in different ways.    It all culminated today in the actual run itself.

I’d like to say we sat on the side and waved at our daughter as she ran by.   But we didn’t.   We saw her come out with her class, holding her cane and the hand of her Braillist teacher.    We saw her line up and her Orientation and Mobility teacher join her at the start line with all the mass of excited children.    And then we watched him run around with her, holding her hand.    We talked a bit before and we all agreed she could run it without a problem.   Except there were problems.

The cones were far apart and were low contrast with the grass.    And then there were the children themselves who were all darting and weaving around as fast as they could.   It was tough to run with her—I should know, I ran about half the laps with her.

But she was happy and excited and not particularly upset that she couldn’t see (she never is).    After the event was over we talked to some of the other parents and then got into a conversation with her braillist and the O&M teacher, finding out he’d come to school today just so he could help her run as her braillist is close to retiring and said her running days were over.

My daughter, husband and I started walking back to the classroom with the two teachers because they’d announced we had to clear out for the third through fifth grade classes.    My daughter said as we were walking, “I won.”   We said something probably like, “you did, you did all thirty-five laps.”   She said, “no, I won” a second time.    Then we were caught by one of the Boosterthon staff.   My daughter was right—she had won.   She’d won the most donations of any child for all kindergarten through second grade classrooms.

What had she won?   She got to “pie” the principal.    I got a video of her very sweetly putting the shaving cream pie in her principal’s face.    She didn’t seem that excited about it but the very first thing she said when she walked in the door this afternoon was, “I pied the principal”.

My husband and I looked at each other.    We’d remarked to each other that we were surprised the fundraising goal was so low.  Maybe the culture of philanthropy is different in public schools.   Be that as it may, my thanks go out to my parents and in-laws for their support of our daughter’s school.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted me to come outside tonight so he could show me the four ways you could safely use a whip.   This sounded interesting so I followed him out through the garage to see him wield a toy fishing rod in a menacing stance.   This eighteen-inch wooden dowel with a string on the end was his whip he told me and then he demonstrated the four ways.   Each way was a method one of the other children had come up with, including his sister’s idea.   My son couldn’t play collaboratively not that many months ago and now he’s helping everyone play together.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was hoarding pool toys yesterday at the end of season pool party.   She complained to one boy who just wanted to throw the torpedo so he could dive for them, “you stole the portito!”