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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Atlas of Independence

That's the name of my daughter's History Day performance on John Adams.




Here she is this morning as the Atlas of Independence himself.  Her group nailed their performance.  It was incredible.  I couldn't have been a prouder peacock. 

Six months ago her group was laboring over their script.  They argued, they debated, they became frustrated.  John Adams is a MOST complex character in a MOST complex position at a MOST complex period of time.   They changed their thesis at least 15 times and completely re-wrote their script after the school competition.

They came THIS close to throwing in the towel after their Social Studies teacher embarrassed them when they performed it for their class.   She told them they didn't know what they were doing and that they wouldn't make it to the District competition.  She told them that even if they did make it to the Districts they would need her approval and she wouldn't give it UNLESS they showed sufficient progress.  

This did not instill confidence in my daughter's group as they floundered around trying to grab a hold of John Adams enormous legacy.

I guess you all know this made me want to Kung Fu Panda kick her across the universe.  

But they did make it on and on and on all the way to the National History Day competition in Washington D.C.. 

But there will be no happy feet tap dancing on my daughter's social studies teacher's face tonight.  And we have not been blessed with the opportunity to shave her head.  

In fact, she is probably saying "I TOLD THEM SO!" right now because my daughter's group did not make it into the finals. 

Sniff. 

No, I'm not disappointed, (SNIFF) even though I did all that ironing.  Ironing is so good for the soul, after all (SNIFF).

Mariko, for the record, my daughter mentioned her English teacher in her interview today as the person who kept them going despite the adversity.  

MAHALO MARIKO!  If only all teachers could be so encouraging.   

I'm so proud of my daughter and her group.  They rocked the house today.  

And I am proud of my son who also rocked the house in the final competition.  


The results come out on Thursday. 

13 comments:

April said...

Hurray for great teachers! Yeah Mariko, Yeah Crash!

Yeah for your daughter for not giving up!

April said...

yeah for me for being first! hehehe!

TisforTonya said...

way to go to your daughter, your son, their groups AND mariko!

and if we all hold her down, I think you could shave her head anyway - because your daughter rocks :)

Nutty Hamster Chick said...

Yes it might be fun to shave her head, although remember on Top Chef when they tried to shave Marcus head and then the guy was asked to leave the competition over it. So maybe not. There may be rules about such things.

Hurray for you daughter and your son and hurray for being in the comment box with T and April, I miss those girls.

When will you be home? Huh. I am really getting excited for July 11. It is getting closer every day.

Sandi said...

We can so arrange for that teachers head to be shaved and her head to be danced upon...I do have some connections with some Tongans you know. haha. I hope that your daughters group knows that they did a wonderful job and that they feel good about all that hard work they did. Not to mention all that ironing that Y.O.U. did! Good luck to the boys!
Yay for Mariko! I want to send my girls to her class!

Sandi said...

Hey Nutty.....what happens on July 11th?

Kristina P. said...

They look great! And I love Mariko.

The Songer said...

Yay... your grandbaby is all grown up!

T looks awesome as J.A.!

Yay for Mariko!

good luck to Z!

Barbaloot said...

I'm still totally amazed at the whole competition as it is. I wish I could've done something like this. Looks like both your kids put in tons of work---and how awesmoe that it paid off with a DC trip!

Mariko said...

YAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!
They are awesome. I am super duper impressed with them and I hope they'll do it again next year because I want an excuse to go to DC. I know I had one this year, but I have to pretend like I'm mulling things over for a long time before my hubby will let me take such trips.
A year should be long enough, just don't tell him I told you now.
And I don't think I did much, but I appreciate the compliment. Let us know the SECOND you find out about your son on Thursday. He may need to do an encore performance here, since I never got to see it.

I am LoW said...

For you, my dear-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZHrKffSk50

:-D

LBBlum said...

YOu guys are too cool for townhouses! Off to better and brighter stages!

Fingers are crossed! Wishing you lots of luck and John Adams mojo

LBBlum said...

jeepers peepers you have a lot of peeps following your blog...!