Finally, May is here. With that means the end of the school year and schools around the country are preparing for their annual talent show. This year I have decided to once again assist with this “delightful” program. In order to participate in the Talent Show, students were expected to complete an application that explained their “talent”. They would then go through an audition to be judged on said “talent”. They will then be judged and scored to determine whether they may the cut to be a part of the Talent Show.
Now comes the time when you have parents that can be too involved. Sometimes these parents can be overboard with their excitement for their child’s entertainment dreams to come true even though no one is getting paid and there is no winning placement. It’s just students displaying what they believe to be a “talent”. These parents were emailing me about the talent show, when applications were just starting to be given out. These are the parents that come to school 30 minutes before dismissal to help their child with their costume and hair, for the after school auditions. These will be the parents that will angrily email me because their child didn’t make it past auditions.
The other end of the spectrum are the parents that are just as clueless as their children. They don’t show any interest in their child participating in a talent show. They don’t know the requirements, nor do they explain to their child what is expected. It’s more of a hassle to them that their child made it in the talent show. One student, lets call him Sherman, has one of these parents.
The other day Sherman was going to audition to play drums in the talent show. He had his drumsticks all nicely taped and was ready for his audition. It was requested in the application, that students that were playing instruments were required to bring that instrument to the school, unless it was a piano, since our school has one of those. So as another teacher, let’s call her Mrs. Bring It (inside joke), and I were assisting students, Sherman asked me where he was supposed to go wait for his audition.
As the both of us were pointing to the room, Mrs. Bring It asks Sherman, “Do you have your drums?”
He replied, “No.”
She asks, “Is your mom going to bring them?”
He says, “No.”
I then ask, “Will you have them the day of the talent show?”
He says, “I don’t have any drums.”
Mrs. Bring It walks away “to assist the other students waiting to audition”.
My face is of course is showing its confusion because I am looking at the drumsticks he has in his hands. Since he is also my actual student, I continue asking him more questions, so that one of us can gain some clarity.
I then ask, “So Sherman, how were you going to play drums in the talent show?”
He stares at me.
“Sweetheart, how were you going to audition to play drums if you don’t have any drums?”
He continues to stare and then says, “Ohhhhhh.”
“Sherman, if you are going to play the drums for the talent show, you have to have drums to play. Please go call your mother and tell her to come pick you up because you can’t audition for the talent show if you have no drums to play.”
He respectfully replied, “Yes ma’am!”
I’m thinking to myself, now why didn’t his mother explain this to him, and then I remember how she was at our recent field trip, which then helped me to answer my own question. Well, at least Sherman is respectable.
Kat's Eye View 