runlikejoy

Displaced Stay At Home Californian in rural N. Carolina

The Many Faces of Joy

The Many Faces of Joy

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Ballet

I have been thinking a lot about blogging lately but I didn't want to be super negative or whiney, I didn't want to complain too much or seem down in the dumps so I have tried to find things that are uplifting and happy to read about, and focus on uplifting things which means I am not writing as much as I usually do.  I also do not want to constantly compare California to North Carolina because as all us Californians know, that is not fair to anyone.  But life is not fair.




I am volunteering twice a week in school.  This is a good way to fill your time when you find yourself with lots of it and not a lot to do.  It is also a good way to focus your negative attention on something positive.  Last week I got a chance to witness a fun game that Kindergartener's and First Grader's play called "What-cha Doin'?  Here is how it goes:

The kids sit in a big circle.  Then one child stands in the middle and points at one of the sitting kids.  The kid they point at says in a sing-song voice "What-cha Doin' Jack?" (insert the kids name here) to which the kid in the middle answers, "Playing hockey" and then the kid sitting stands up and replaces the kid in the middle and the kid in the middle starts to run around pretending to be playing hockey.  Then the kid points to another kid and they say "What-cha doin' Mikey" and Mikey says, "playing baseball" and so on.  Eventually each child will get a chance to pretend to do some type of sport or game as you make your way around the circle.  It also allows the kids to get their wiggles out after lunch when they are starting to get a little crazy. And I'd like to think it addresses the lack of exercise the kids get in school but if you see how little exercise they get and how nasty the cafeteria food is, you would not believe it.  But I'm saving that for one of the super negative blogs later on when you are tired of all the rainbows and sunshine I'm streaming your way.

Eventually the game got around the circle and it was my kid's turn to be asked what they were doin' to which she answered, "dancing ballet".  Now both of my girls have taken ballet for a few years and they both have had boys in their ballet classes.  But the teacher stopped the game and said, "no no, we aren't having boys dance ballet, pick something else" and so my kid picked jumping jacks or something like that.  And just like that all the conversations we have had at home about boys and girls doing the same stuff and girls being able to do exactly whatever boys can do and vice versa went flying out the window.  And I felt super sad for boy ballerinas everywhere.

 And then I gave the girls a lecture about them being able to do whatever the hell they wanted including welding, installing cable, playing polo, swashbuckling and being ballerinas.


2 comments:

Lauren said...

Oh, what a sad way in which NC is different from CA :(

But hooray for swashbuckling, it sounds like something my kids would enjoy too!

Unknown said...

Oh, yes, ballet is for girls, football for boys ! 21st century here !!! Hello North Carolina ?? Forgetting Baryshnikov and Nureyev and so many other male dancers.