Thursday, May 25, 2006

On the Carpet   [John Derbyshire]

It wasn't actually the principal's office, Warren, it was the Dean's.  Middle schools have Deans nowadays.  They probably—I'd really rather not know—have Diversity Monitoring Officers, Community Liaison Officers, Bilingual Outreach Officers, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Zoophile, Necrophile, Dendrophile, and Questioning Co-ordination Officers, and a host of similar positions.  Teachers?  Yeah, I think I spotted a teacher there one time.  Our property tax dollars at work.

Anyway, it wasn't as earnestly therapeutic as I had feared.  I can handle anything but therapeuticism (?).  It just makes me raging mad, wanting to smash a chair against the wall.  This Dean lady was actually quite sensible.  Danny had punched someone on the bus.  Danny: "He tried to pull me out of my seat."  The victim was 4th grade, Danny is 5th (though small and skinny for his age).  Danny has a rap sheet, the other boy doesn't.  It was all circumstantial and ambiguous, as these things usually are.  I decided to split the difference on punishment:  Let the school do whatever they thought appropriate, but nothing additional at home.  (Last incident, Danny threw a ball, apparently with malice, at a girl.  Big no-no.  He lost a week's computer time at home for that, on top of the school punishment.)  I register some mild satisfaction at knowing that, whatever the particular circumstances here, my son clearly knows how to throw a punch.

In the sentencing phase, Danny lost a day's free time (recess, lunchtime).

Now here's one for you.  Having just watched the Firefly discs, why aren't movie producers fighting to sign up some of those great character-full actors from Firefly?  Like this one, for example, who dominates every scene he's in, just by radiating mean.

05/25 10:24 AMShare