To Shame or Not To Shame
While driving my daughter to school this past week, we noticed a young teen raking leaves on campus which shouldn’t seem out of the ordinary but to my daughter, it was. The raker had been “deuced” which is another way of saying the student had been caught doing something outside of the honor code. Punishments vary but nearly every “deuced” student has to spend a day or more raking leaves or cleaning up around campus in full sight of everyone – not because the maintenance staff needs help but to shame the student. It’s the equivalent of wearing the Scarlett Letter “A” in full view of the student’s peer community. Read more 
“Margaret”
A few days ago, NPR interviewed Kenneth Lonergan on Margaret – his most recent movie release. Lonergan, a writer and director, is well-known for the movie “You Can Count On Me” (2000) starring Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, which was nominated for two Academy awards.
Margaret was filmed in 2006 but was not released until last year because of a disagreement between Lonergan and Fox Searchlight over the editing of the film: Lonergan wanted to release a longer version (2-1/2 hours) and Fox Searchlight didn’t which led to lawsuits and ultimately to delay the release of the film. The DVD was released this week and includes both versions. Read more
Absent the Killer Instinct; Present a Heart
My daughter finished the swim season last year with an announcement that she was joining the school’s water polo team. She had never played water polo before but with most of the swim team opting to play during off-season, I encouraged her to take on a new sport if she was interested. A week later, she came home and announced the coach asked if she wanted to train to be the team’s goalie. Seems the current goalie was a senior and graduating so a slot was opening up. Given her freshman status, her height and long arm reach, she was the ideal prospect and took to the sport with a total sense of commitment. Read more
The Impasse at Home
The Changing Role of Motherhood: Life With a Teenage Daughter
My 15-year old daughter recently asked me if I missed the old days when she was little and although my brain was screaming “YES, YES, YES, ” I calmly admitted to sometimes missing those days we spent together running errands, seeing Disney on Ice, having lunch together, and reading a book before bedtime (6:30 pm back then). Right now I would go so far as to admit that I would welcome seeing “Barney’s Big Adventure” again (and I’ve seen it at least four times and each time was more painful than the previous). Read more
Paddock Post 