APPRECIATION: STRANGE DREAMS ABOUT SCHOOL

Sometimes reality is strange. And then while you’re sleeping, the strange seeps into corners of your brain and lubricates your dreams. I have strange school dreams. Like these two:

1. Quick change

Parents interrupt a staff meeting. “Our kids are the wrong gender. Change it.” Staff chatters. Superintendent is diplomatic, official. “As a school district it is our legal obligation to provide a…” Someone interrupts and says, “God made us male and female it is not our place to…” Someone else interrupts and says, “We don’t have a sterile environment for surgeries or authorization for the kinds of medication…” And in unison the staff says, “You are asking too much of us.” The parents laugh. “No. It’s wrong in your computer. Just change the M to F.” Staff in unison: “Oh.” And this is where it gets interesting. A heated debate ensues, which ends in the staff deciding that maybe performing the surgeries would be the easiest way out of this.

2. About these referrals

Principal and Superintendent (same person) calls me to his office. He has a stack of referrals.

“You wrote a referral for every student in the school.”

I act surprised, and then go on the defensive as he goes through them.

“You said that this student’s face is broken.”

“Yeah,” I say. “When you smile at them, or say hello, they frown and kind of growl. It’s broken. That’s not how a face should work.”

“You said that this one doesn’t use words correctly.”

“I’ve tried my best. I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Too short? There’s a whole stack of these.”

“Yeah. If we were going to go on a rollercoaster. I was probably getting on a roll. That’s kind of mean. Some of them will probably grow out of that. ”

“On this one you recommend that we should put them down. Are you suggesting that…”

“No. Uh. Huh? No. Uh. Down. Like downstairs. We should put them in a class that’s downstairs.”

My boss then begins to suggest that there is a common denominator in all of these. I tell him that I see where he’s going with that, and that