Yesterday was quite a day for me and the children that are a part of my life.
I taught my second class at the
JCC on the upper west side. For this class, I get to spend an hour and a half with about fifteen 7 year
olds, playing games and singing songs. What could be better than that? Last week, we sang "Do-Re-Mi," or "Do, a Deer." The best way to get kids to sing with you is to sing really loudly at them. Unfortunately, I had a sore throat last week, sounded sounded like Harvey
Fierstein, and not even Torch Song Trilogy Harvey
Fierstein, but Hairspray Harvey
Fierstein. The kids came up with motions for the various
solfege syllables. The whole thing was very cute, except for my singing.
By the way, the class is all girls, except for one guy. Since the class has Broadway in the name, I was hoping that any boy who signed up would be awkward and shy, like I would have been. This kid is hyperactive and can't pay attention to anything. I know kids are
overmedicated these days, but I can understand the impulse to drug the energy out of loud kids. They're just really hard to deal with.
One of my biggest fears with the class stems from the fact that the guy I'm subbing for is better looking than I am, and kids like good looking people better then non-good looking people. I saw a story about it on 20/20 years ago so I know it's true. I'm afraid that the kids are not ever going to like me as much because I'm not as cute as the original pianist for the class.
After working with the kids in the afternoon, I spent my night with the 38 young pioneers of Bonanza City. I love kid nation so much. That's all there is to say about that. My only concern right now is that Zach isn't going to get a gold star because he's now the leader of the yellow district. In related news, according to entertainment weekly, Randi was the one girl who voted for Zach, dethroning Taylor. I was thrilled that one of the kids I initially
profiled ended up being so important this episode, even though I thought some other girl was the swing vote.