[August 4th
marks the 125th
anniversary of the day that Lizzie Borden may or may not have taken an axe
and given her mother
forty whacks and her father forty-one (more on that crucial ambiguity in
Friday’s post). So this week I’ve AmericanStudied five histories or stories of
deeply troubled children, leading up to this special weekend post on two
children who are anything but!]
The picture of
my sons that headlines this blog was already a bit outdated when I began blogging
in November 2010, and is really really outdated nearly seven years later. They’re
rising 6th and 5th graders now, 11 and 10 years old, and
day in and day out the most inspiring presences in my life. Here are three
reasons why, one for each of them and then one that’s shared:
1)
Pledge Protest: One of my
posts in that first month of blogging focused on a preschool Pledge of
Allegiance, so it’s only appropriate that I come back around to the Pledge in a
very different context. Throughout his time in 5th grade this past
year, my older son took a knee during his class’s recital of the Pledge; the
idea, entirely his own, was to honor and extend Colin
Kaepernick’s anthem protest. Thanks in part to Bruce’s
amazing “American Skin (41 Shots),” a shared favorite song of ours, I’ve
talked to the boys about police shootings and race in America for many years
now; but there’s talking and then there’s listening, understanding, and developing
one’s own perspective and voice. My son’s Pledge protest reflects just how
fully he’s done all of the latter, and become his own amazing young man as a
result (among many other influences of course).
2)
Peer Pressure: My younger son is far more
naturally social than his brother, and every year thus far has become fast and
serious friends with at least one classmate. His 4th grade year was
no different, as he and this friend bonded over basketball (my son became a
die-hard Celtics fan thanks to this friend and the amazing play of Isaiah
Thomas) and many other shared interests. But I’m particularly proud of an influence
my son had on this friend—his friend was much less of a fan of schoolwork and
homework than my son, and over the course of the year my son encouraged his
buddy to get his homework done; much more importantly, he partnered with him on
multiple class projects, and I could see (and heard from his parents) how much
his friend became energized and enthused by this positive peer pressure. Once
again, none of this came from me or his mom or anyone else, but rather from my
son’s own perspective and personality and desire to help his friend succeed. It
was and is a beautiful thing to witness.
3)
Bookworms: Six months back, I
wrote a post on Kate Milford’s wonderful supernatural historical novel The Boneshaker (2010). Little
did I know then that that might be one of the last books that I would read
aloud to the boys, as they’ve moved very fully into obsessive reading on their
own, aided greatly by two wonderful series by British YA author Anthony Horowitz:
the Alex
Rider spy novels and the Power
of Five/Gatekeepers supernatural thrillers. The fifth and final Power of
Five novel, Oblivion (2012),
clocked in at a cool 600 pages (more than 100 pages longer than the longest
book we had read together, Wildwood), and the boys each
read it quickly and happily. The boys love playing sports, playing games on
their iPads or on video game systems, biking to their friends’ houses to “ding
dong ditch” them (yes, that’s still a thing, if fortunately without the flaming
bag of poop), and plenty more of what might be considered stereotypical boy
pursuits or interests. But if anyone ever says that kids these days aren’t reading,
aren’t getting engrossed in good old fashioned hard-copy page-turners, I
encourage you to send them to this post for an inspiring rejoinder.
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Any children
(young or old) you want to shout-out? Now’s your chance!
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