the convict fighting for justice

tyler has one week left of middle school and he’s on to high school next year. yesterday, he had to present an 8th grade exit project to a panel consisting of teachers, administration, counselors, and classmates at his school. he’s been working on the project for a month. it started with a thesis statement…he wrote a five page research paper…prepared a seven minute speech and created a powerpoint presentation to aide his speech. oh…and had to answer questions from the panel. i admit this project has been the source of much struggle in our home for several weeks.

tyler chose to write a thesis statement centered on problems facing the environment and society vs. government responsibility to address those problems. he knew his content. in the last week as he was practicing for the speech, we were having numerous conversations about allowing his personality to “shine”. tyler has a great sense of humor. he’s also quite passionate about some things. each day, as he would practice his presentation with me, i would encourage him to “be passionate”. at which point he would roll his eyes and move on.

then came the weekend. we had to go shopping to buy clothes for his presentation. again i encouraged, “how about a tie that shows your sense of humor?” “maybe one with a frog?” he laughed and reminded me that in 8th grade, all you want to do is blend in. i said, ” you used to be willing to take more risks?” he said, “that was in 6th grade.” so he picked out black pants, a grey shirt, and a grey tie. i told him he looks like a funeral director. he picked out black shoes (size 13!). we were done.

all of a sudden, at home, the night before his big speech…he found it. he comes running into my room screaming, “mom. i found my passion! i know what i’m going to say.” at this point, i’d like to say i was very excited…but i know tyler’s sarcastic expression…and it was on. “ok tyler, what are you going to say?” he musters up an angry, wronged look on his face and says, “i deserve justice. it’s wrong that i have to wear these clothes.” i laugh and teasingly implore, “you’re talking about government, society, global warming, alternative energies, hurricanes, flooding, garbage, and money…but you can only drum up indignation because you have to wear a tie?” tyler looks at me, finds something inside himself and says seriously, “yes, it’s wrong.” he found his passion.

i stayed home an extra hour yesterday morning to help him get ready. he grumbled the whole time. i asked him if he was going to tell the panel he didn’t think he should have to dress up. he said yes. i asked, “do you think that will take away from the content of your presentation?” he said he didn’t care. i’m pretty sure i counted 13 “stupid’s” and 9 “freakin stupid’s” before i called time. 

before i left for work i took a couple of pictures. the first one i took, he had this awful, miserable, my-life-is-horrible face. i told him he looked like a convict in their mugging photo. in the next one, above, he held out his hands as if he was holding a sign (police number). i asked what his sign would say. he said, “this is wrong”

so there is my dear convict fighting for justice. he is a crusader. he did a great presentation…didn’t mention the clothes. i called from work when he came home from school to see how things went. he said, “no one else dressed up like i did.” i said, “well, did you change into your jeans and stuff after your presentation?” (i had packed a change of clothes because his speech was 1st period) he said, “no.” i said, “why not, why didn’t you say anything?” he said, “well, a girl said i looked spiffy.” me, “oh…well you did look spiffy.” tyler, “is spiffy good?” me, “yeah, bud, spiffy is good.”  

This entry was posted on June 12, 2007 at 11:03 pm and is filed under life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.