Speed Dating

One of my missionary mom friends recently wrote as her Facebook status: "I just got home from speed dating, aka middle school parent-teacher conferences." I laughed out loud. I had just that night returned from "speed dating" myself. I had circulated the gym of Seth's middle school, visiting seven different teachers, each for between 5 and 10 minutes, and then moving on. It was tiring enough for me; just imagine how exhausting it must have been for those poor teachers, who had been at school since 7:30 that morning, making a 12-hour day. Yikes!

As I was walking from "date" to "date," I overheard one mom say to her husband (I presume), "Let's go see the P.E. teacher. Maybe we can find some good news there." In that moment, I stopped momentarily and thanked Heavenly Father that all my children have been such good students. I honestly have no idea how it would feel to encounter bad news at a parent-teacher conference. I knew Seth was doing well academically because we already had his grades from the first trimester. Nope, he didn't quite reach his goal of all A's; he got one B+ in Utah History because it's "so boring." Ah well.

More important than grades, though, it was pure delight to hear all the kind comments from Seth's teachers. One "date" after the other, they spoke of a wonderful kid, so cooperative, so helpful, with such a great attitude and mature sense of humor. Yep, that's my Seth! The whole experience was any mom's dream. I was particularly interested in two "dates":

Because Seth had a difficult experience last year in P.E., and because this year has been so much different, I was anxious to "date" his P.E. teacher. I walked up to his table, sat down across from him, speed dating style, and said, "I'm Seth Erichsen's mom." Without even a pause, he replied: "Seth! Superstar athlete. Best kid ever." Wait...no. No. "You must be thinking of someone else," I countered. "He's definitely not a superstar athlete," to which he responded, "In my class, if a kid shows up, dresses out for P.E., maintains a positive attitude and tries his best every day, he's a superstar athlete to me." Enough said.

I quickly moved on to my final "speed date," the science teacher. I was especially interested in "dating" her because of Seth's constant, unadulterated praise. According to Seth, she is the "best teacher in the entire world," the best one he has ever had in any grade in any subject the whole eight years he has been in school. Now you'd have to know Seth to know that this says a lot, a whole lot. Seth does not just hand out compliments willy nilly; he is not easy to impress. But this teacher clearly has his attention, and I wanted to know why. Aside from the fact that he finished the trimester with 104.5% in her class, I could see right away why he likes her so much. She was energetic (even at nearly 8:00 p.m on "speed dating" night) and so enthusiastic about her curriculum that even I was interested in science, I, a full on, right-brained, touchy-feely English major!

About then the clock struck 8:00 p.m., and the "dating" was over. Until next time.