People keep asking if I’m enjoying my break now that it’s summer time. What break? I’m busy as hell? Today has been a quieter day, the first one this week, partly because so many things are closed because of the holiday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Logan and I were in Eugene for very long days. Yesterday Carolyn and for girls came out and played all afternoon, which was great fun without having to drive anywhere. Today we’ll go see the fireworks in Yoncalla again.

Logan has a very pretty Fourth of July dress that Grandma Wilma made her which she’ll wear out to eat tonight and to see the fireworks. We’ll take some pictures so I can post those at some point.

In other news we got a letter in the mail yesterday saying that Michael Wilt had resigned from his teaching position at school, and the school had hoped he would be able to stay but had not been able to work things out with him and his partner. On the back was a photo copy of a handwritten letter from him, to parents rather than children, saying he was leaving with mixed feelings but felt he could find the best for his daughter and his family elsewhere. I am surprised mainly that he chose to leave after the time when teachers gave their commitments to stay or go for the upcoming year, as I understand it. I had not seen a lot that led me to believe he wanted to stay toward the end of the year, and I knew his family was not happy with their daughter in school. I am hoping that a good choice will be made for the teacher for next year, with the children of the class in mind. The College of Teachers wrote a very nice letter saying they would keep parents informed and to contact them with ideas or concerns. I may do that after some reflection, to inquire about the writing of the advertisement for the teacher. I looked up others they wrote for teachers this year and was discouraged to find they read like a commercial for Eugene Oregon, with a very slight mention of the class.

Logan seems to be handling the departure of her teacher fairly well. Her only complaint has been that he didn’t announce he was leaving before the end of the year so that he could go on stage and get flowers the way other teachers who wouldn’t be returning did. Which seems like a fair summation. She would have liked to see her teacher honored before he left. She was concerned about whether she’d meet a new teacher before school started, and I assured her she would as soon as possible. Perhaps we’ll get a teacher who is already familiar with Social Inclusion, which I’d like to see brought to the school to help handle the bullying and exclusion which seems to occur so often with grade school children. The more teachers who are familiar with it ahead of time the better.

Logan is continuing her swimming lessons over the summer, and seeing some friends regularly at a weekly play group. We also see others who have swimming at a time near ours, and last week someone from her class arranged for a group strawberry picking to happen, so we saw about half the class there. It’s hard to know what to call them. They’ve been Grade One, now they are Grade Two. They were Mr Wilt’s class, now they are in limbo not knowing whose class they’ll be. EWS Class of 2015 I guess. That makes Maisie’s 2016 and Sandy’s 2017. And Carolyn’s Lilly and Matilda the two down the other direction 2014 and 2013 respectively. Phew!

Filed under: life, school, Holiday