Overachievers anonymous: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Overachievers anonymous: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 4, 2009 . 10:50PM

On Friday, I was lucky enough to get to pick AJ up from school and he was lucky enough to be a “car rider” that day. With my going to school and working, this happens, at most, once a week or every two weeks. It was raining heavily and the pick-up line was long. I’d forgotten my phone and was trying to be content with making the other moms and dads laugh by singing Bryan Adams “Heaven” at the top of my lungs, complete with hand movement and shoulder shaking.

As I waited for AJ, I watched as the teachers pulled out their umbrellas and personally escorted the little ones to their waiting cars. It occurred to me how NICE a gesture this was, especially considering how all of us selfish parents were just sitting in the cars being content to let the children we love get a little rained on in order to stay comfortable ourselves. What? Rain makes the flowers grow. Surely it won’t hurt a child. The teachers, however, were so considerate and I remembered how much this school means to me and AJ, yet again.

For the first two years of his education, we struggled. He had difficulty focusing in class and learning to read was just about the end of everyone’s sanity. When we moved into our home, however, he switched schools (same district, though) and we found magic. A new teacher with infinite patience and the capability to help him learn in ways that no one was able to before now. Immediately, the same child who, until now, had struggled with putting 3 words together in a book, was reading 90 page books in an evening. He was doing his homework and was one of the top spellers in his class. I recently got his progress report and he’s grown by leaps and bounds this year. All because one teacher cared enough to figure out how he learns. If you get a good teacher, encourage that teacher. We need more of them.

I’m off topic, though. When AJ got into the car, he asked if I had a pencil. I knew what he was up to and told him that I didn’t and his homework would have to wait until we got home. AJ comes from a line of overachievers. His grandmother just got her Bachelors degree and has always worked hard at every job she’s ever had. I don’t ever feel like what I’m doing at any job or school is ever enough and, thus, I get my work done early and do a little extra. AJ is the third in the line of high expectations. When we pulled into our driveway, he’d conjured a pencil and I saw him with his homework, held up to the window as a flat surface, finishing up.