Dear Mzzzzzzzzzzz Haairringring-kee

I wrote this to a columnist, I hope I get a response:

Oh god....

So the girl had a science project to do..... (a gardening "science project" thing handed out by her wonderful and passionate teacher... kind of "out there"... no real guidelines, no expectations... just a couple items of criteria, one of them that it had to be done at home, and it was due Nov 21st). The girl ended up in tears just talking about it. So everyday I approached her with a new set of words and a huge amount of love about "the science project"... until it came down to of course the crunch... and she needed to hand something in, rather than a blank piece of paper. Two sundays ago.... the pip and i worked on her science project... (get this...)

So Pip....(I read a her a bunch of "shit" about making and preparing soil).....how do you make soil?.....she then talks, and I type... what ever the words were that came out of her mouth... they got slammed on paper... in the meantime she was busily colouring away gardening pictures. We did this for the whole project... "colour Pip colour", I said to her... imbetween "what did you just hear about watering plants?"... until we were done, stapled and labeled. Yes, we "referred" to a couple of diagrams, (what's the point in colouring a picture if you do not take special notice of it) and icluded an introduction and a conclusion....

So the teacher refused to give pip back her project,(which made Pip cry!) then proceeds to say to me... "this seems more like you, than the Pip"... my response.... yes. Now she would like to meet with me... and now the greater fear is .... she won't be happy with my response at the end of the meeting..... two.... I fear that she wants the girl to redo the project, and if that's the case.. I will write my obituary now...three... I will have to ask her what her expectations are for a misdirected child to do a total science project at home, on her own... when she would much rather be playing barbies and building houses for her stuffed cats..... I fear I will say things like "if you ( the teacher) would have liked something of substance to be completed by the pip then the bulk of the project should have been attempted within school hours, not sent home with an irresponsible 8 year old that is intimidated easily... and has no concept of "pressure to impress"... ... or even worse... "if you were expecting that the childs parents wouldn't get involved... those expectations should have been written in the "criteria" section on the back of the paper as well"....

See,.... I fear for myself, and the Pip... I do not think that I will meet with the teacher today.....it's in all of our best interest... but then, I could decide to hold my tongue... I will see how the mood strikes me.

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