Thursday, February 14, 2008

Post Speech Post

My son was not able to give his “I Have a Dream” speech due to time constraints in his class. He has a day off on Monday and ended up giving speech yesterday.

When I got home last night I went straight to my desk, as usual, to check my emails and such.

“Hey dad, I did my speech today.”

“Right on. How did it go?”

“It went really good. It really got to some of the kids.”

“What did your teacher think?”

“She never really listens. She grades papers and stuff during speeches. But that’s cool, I wanted the kids to listen.” He did not seem disappointed about the lack of attention from his teacher.

“How could you tell that you ‘got to’ some of the kids?”

“One guy who I don’t really know was really freaked out about diabetes. He said he didn’t know it was like that and felt really bad because he thought it was just for old people. One girl said she almost started crying. And one guy just thought I wrote a good speech and delivered well. He kept saying, 'man that was good.' It was funny” He was very proud of himself but also kind of surprised.

“It’s important when you give a speech to not only have something interesting to talk about but also to be able to keep people’s attention. That’s good dude. I am sorry your teacher didn’t listen, that kind of sucks.” I do not sound like a dad do I?

“Nah, it’s not a big deal. If I only got 3 kids thinking about diabetes than I think it’s a success.”

I agree.

5 comments:

Chris said...

You boy is much older than his age gives him credit for. Good for both of you.

Anonymous said...

I am proud of your;s son,i am dibetic too! many regards for both of you ewa

Kathy Barbis said...

Your son gives me goosebumps! he is just awesome...

Oh, and completely off topic, I started weight watchers 2 weeks ago. You are my inspiration!

Donna said...

He is wise beyond his years. You must be so proud!

Major Bedhead said...

I'm so glad the kids received his speech so well but I do think it's a shame the teacher didn't listen. That's just wrong.


And FWIW, I tell my kids that things suck all the time. I'm sitting right there with you on the are-you-sure-you're-a-parent bench.