Oral Presentation

I wonder if a parent ever tires of hearing how wonderful their kid is. I mean my mom seemed to handle it well. And she must have had to endure years and years of it.

Right.

I had emailed Carter's teacher this morning to inquire about a "6th-grade graduation" meeting we parents have to attend tonight. She gave me the run down on the meeting and then added the following P.S.:

"I just thought I would let you know that Carter's oral reading skills have been an excellent model for other students! I have really enjoyed his ability to give expression in reading content, paying attention to the types of sentence punctuation, and character quirks. I highly recommend that he looks for forensics. speech contests, or roles in a school play/drama next year. He's a natural and I would love to see that fostered!"

Carter being dramatic? Entertaining? The center of attention? How unlike his shy parents!

Right.

Of course, I love hearing positive feedback about my child -- considering we've had to also address his love for entertaining at "inappropriate times." Basically any time it's not recess, it's not a good time to be Mr. Charming in the classroom. (No wonder he's got a waiting list of girls ready to call him when he gets a cell phone!)

Anyway, the geek in me would be thrilled if he wandered down the forensics/speech road. I enjoyed 3 years in high school forensics, experiencing the anxiety and thrill of state competition all 3 of those years. I know you find it hard to believe I was ever nervous speaking in public, but I was. And I think forensics helped reduce that fear to a manageable amount. (You'd probably find it harder to believe I did the 4-minute speech competition for 2 of those years -- that's the shortest speech category!)

So we'll see where this leads -- if anywhere. If nothing else, Wonder Boy will have something to throw back in my face 5 years from now when I'm yelling at him about missing curfew. "But, Mom, remember when my teacher said I'm a leader? I was just out mentoring people..."

Right.