In Trouble

I picked Asher up from cross country the other day, and when he got in the car and I asked about his day, he said, “Um… I got in trouble today.”

???? Hmm??, I said. You did?? (concerned). (Fortunately, my boys “getting in trouble” at school is VERY rare, thankfully. They are usually always very good kids! So I was bracing myself for some unexpected bad news.)

So then he went on to explain that on Friday, apparently they had a substitute teacher in one class and they ended up watching a movie. He said he was eating his popcorn snack and at some point, he decided to toss some pieces of popcorn up in the air to try to catch them in his mouth. (Seems like a very 11-year-old boy thing to do….). He assured me that he DID pick up any pieces of popcorn that missed his mouth off the floor immediately, though, just to clarify. 😉

As a result, the regular teacher was making him write an apology letter to the substitute teacher, and he also would be sending me an email (with teacher cc’ed on) to explain the incident and apologize.

I almost had to bite my lip to keep from smiling, I guess because I was relieved that this was the big misbehavior. Not that I think it is okay! I’m willing to bet that the real issue is that the sub told him to knock it off, and he proceeded to toss just a couple more in his mouth before actually stopping. In which case, I agree- that is disrespectful, and tossing popcorn around in a classroom really isn’t appropriate classroom behavior.

But still. In today’s world, if the worst thing my kid does is catch popcorn in his mouth in the back row on a movie day, I think we’re doing okay.

I had literally just finished reading a thread on Facebook about another middle school nearby where multiple police squads had to be called to break up several big physical fights between students, which put the whole school on lockdown for the rest of the day…. 😲 WOW. I am sooooo thankful that things like that are essentially unheard of at their current school.

So then again, maybe they are onto something! I do think there’s something to be said for nipping problems in the bud. Maybe handing out swift consequences for the “little things” like the popcorn incident helps set the standard that ANY amount of disrespect, lack of rule following, disruption, etc. is simply NOT tolerated. It literally blows my mind to hear about some of the horrendous behaviors that take place in some school settings today.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for my AirPods. Pretty sure this is a repeat gratitude entry, but man, I love those things.