A Toxic Culture

I think I've mentioned on more than one occasion that our students do not like running.

Well, today is Wednesday.

Wednesday is Mile Run Day!

yippee...

As usual, 99% of kids whipped out mommy notes excusing them from running for various made-up reasons.

In an odd twist that I think should be studied by the medical community, many of them found the realization that they must sit out of recess if they aren't healthy enough to run surprisingly healing and mustered up the strength to drag themselves around for a mile.

(I'm contacting The Journal of the American Medical Association to see if they'd like me to whip up an article on this groundbreaking cure for "I-Don't-Wanna-itis.")

My favorite note was written by a student and it read:

I would like to be excused from PE today. Running makes me breathe hard.

Another kid came up to me and said that his parents did not want us to use a marker to track his laps on his palm with dots.

It's toxic and could get into his bloodstream and kill him.

Do they honestly think we would do anything to KILL HIM?!?!?

If Vis a Vis markers were toxic, we all would have been dead loooooong ago.

I don't know about you, but I can't use a marker without inadvertantly smearing ink all over myself like a toddler.

On second thought, maybe that IS just me...

That is neither here nor there. As the marker-poisoned student was "running" his laps today (with masking tape on his palm on which he could collect his dots), he decided to sharpen his thespian skills.

I spied him approaching me, arms outstretched in front of him, weaving and stumbling and looking in distress.

Me: You ok?

Him: Whaa? I...I can't really see you. Eh...every...every...everything is all blurry and going dark.

Me: Well, then head towards the light, but do it at a jog 'cause I want these laps done in under 15 minutes.