This is a photo of the pillow that sits on our daughter, Kate's couch. It was funny when she got it. Now it's hitting a little close to the gut. I've written before about the ziggedy-zaggedy road that led to Kate finally wearing her Doctoral robes last fall. For many years she studied not only how the young brain learns to read, placing electrodes on kids heads in a lab for a couple years, she also became an expert on what teaching methods are most effective. I would send anyone any age to reap her wisdom. Now, with her Doctoral degree fresh in hand, she's still trying to find a job in her field of expertise. It didn't help a bit that one year ago this week the President of the United States dismantled the Department of Education and handed out an abundance of "You're Fired" papers. I guess he's expecting kids and their overwhelmed parents to figure it out themselves. These kids are going to take care of the rest of us in just a little while, so ... yeah.
Anyway, in an effort to pull back from my instinctive desire to hit somebody I'll return to the humor on Kate's pillow. Things generally aren't funny unless they include an element of truth.
I'm trying to remember what I thought I might want my job to be when I was in Kindergarten. I suspect I might have wanted to be a teacher because that year I felt loved by my teacher. My Second Grade teacher ,who felt my head for evidence of Mormon horns, cured me of that.
When our youngest grandchild, Tess, was five years old, she knew exactly what job she wanted:
"I'm going to be a taste tester. You know, someone who tastes food and says if its good or not."
I thought it was pretty advanced of her to even be aware that such a profession might exist. I haven't studied it out, but I suspect Tessy's Kinder-dream job is going to be just about as easy to find as a position for a remarkably qualified educator.
Then again, I just saw this ad in the news:
Since Tess is only in Third Grade right now, maybe her Auntie Kate should apply. Better hurry though, before the King of the World decides to dismantle fast food joints as well.
