Self Portrait

It was approximately a year ago when Jake’s previous classroom devolved, as James describes it, into Lord of the Flies.  Ultimately the problem seemed to be too many kids, a disproportionate age spread, and perhaps a tad too much “free play.”  Every day I would encourage Jake to keep his feelings in check and every evening I would ask, with a bit of trepidation, “How was school today?”  Jacob would squint his big eyes, raise his chin and with a wide grin he would say, “Mama, nooooo bitiiiiiiiiiing!”

It’s now a year later and fortunately, the majority of his incident reports have documented him as the hapless victim.  Now my morning pep talks and casual evening inquiries are more along the lines of speaking up and developing an authentic interest in clean skivvies.  He squints his big eyes, raises his chin and with a wide grin proclaims, “Nooooo accidents!”  We’ve just had a great five day record.

Then last week there were several days where he came home and his face had been scrubbed pink.  There was some snippet of feedback about markers… I didn’t give it much thought.  But then, then Jacob was written up for hiding under a table and coloring all over his face.  The incident report read:  Jacob took some markers away from the writing area.  Jacob hid under a table and colored his face with the markers.  The marks on his face did not come off with water or lotion.  Please remind Jacob to use the markers in room 4 with paper.

I guess it was some kind of art “incident.”  Of course his rationale did not in fact shed light on this episode.  Frankly, I think when you’re three it’s just fun to rebel and experiment with self-inflicted body art.

In any case, my morning inspirational heart-to-hearts continue to evolve, weaving in subtle encouragement and at times, blatant directives.  At work they call this “Situational Leadership.”  Last week’s after school powwows had Jakey squinting his big eyes, raising his chin and with a wide grin announcing, “Nooooo accidents today.  And I didn’t draaaw on my faaaaace!”