Today I left work and met my wife at our 2nd grader's school. The entire 2nd grade was performing songs and such from their music classes. I arrived about 2 minutes before they started-just in time to see the official welcome from the principle and to wave to my son as I found mommy in the crowd. It's rare to hear children that age not only harmonize but stay in key and behave. Once again the teachers had pulled it off !  It was a wonderful performance. Short enough to keep our attention and long enough to
showcase what the boys and girls had learned from energetic and dedicated teachers. I have always had an appreciation for teachers but it wasn't until we had children of our own was I able to see day by day , project by project and song by song the value of great teachers.
                 So there we sat, my wife and I captivated as if we were at a favorite broadway show. There was a time when I thought I'd never be scrambling to get a photo of my son singing with a hundred other kids or video taping his walking onto stage. The stage was filled with music and joy and the kids  were having fun and the parents could see they knew what to do and when. The photos will end up in our kitchen like the rest of America. Ha. I used to see friends cover their refrigerators and walls with their kids artwork and think "ok-this is a little over the top-it's a tree and a pumpkin- it's a green glob of clay with a fingerprint-whoopie you're son's in a paper pilgrim hat- what's the big deal?!" I once told a friend "the last thing I'm gonna do is junk up a stainless refrig with finger paintings and a dozen pictures of little league". WOW was I full of crap. You can't even tell what the refrig is anymore- there is so much art and "stuff" on it, the door might fall off. So now I'm just another parent who has 342 pictures of his son's little face in a sea of singing children taped to an appliance and it's very cool.