and white and wrote in big black letters across these little stinkers: "Don't Stink, Vote Spinks" The next morning, I taped some of my skunks to the walls in the classroom and the rest I pinned on the chest of some of my grade-school buddies. Meanwhile, my opponent in the race, Holly Fullilove, whose mom clearly loved her more than my parents loved me, had a zillion copies of the cutest cutouts with happy hearts dancing all over the page. They were scattered throughout the school and everyone had one pinned to their shirt. Even I wanted one!....Why? Because they all came with a strawberry flavored heart-shaped sucker. I mean, it's kinda hard to compete with someone whose last name, Fullilove, is basically "full-of-love" if you break it down. Needless to say, tiny, adorable Holly won the election and the only thing that stunk were my hand-drawn, handcolored, pitiful skunks that laid atop my
stinky desk. But there was something so special about that experience for me. I discovered some things about myself that I really liked. I discovered that if I want something badly enough, I will do whatever I need to do to give myself a chance to win. I discovered that when it doesn't go my way, I'm okay. And I discovered that my parents were always willing to help me find a way to complete a goal, even if I didn't have the proper tools I thought I needed to run the race. Nowadays, kids can click on their phone, look up hundreds of ideas and creations for any sort of project -science fair, book reports or even poster ideas for running for office -- and simply select the one they like. They can copy it, paste it and then send it to their email address. Next, they just tweak it to fit their own idea of what it should say or
look like and then even print it out or fax it somewhere from an app that is right there on their phone! Honest to goodness, they can do pretty much anything and everything from their phone! And, quite frankly, I don't blame them! I would've given anything for help with my elementary slogan, "Don't Stink. Vote Spinks!" But "Stink" was the only thing I could think of that rhymed with "Spinks". Clearly, in today's world, I could've had a much better slogan and it could've been easily printed out hundred times in mere minutes. But I wouldn't have that memory. And I think if I had to choose, I would choose the memory. What do you suppose would happen if we all woke up tomorrow morning only to discover that cell phones had become non-existent.
Find out more about Montessori at our Seminar/Open House:
The Journey - Saturday, Jan. 27
Personalized tours - Weekdays at 9:00 a.m. Call to schedule: 318.861.6777
Nondiscriminatory in enrollment and employment Page 81 | LOLA MAGAZINE | January-February 2018