Today I gave my iPod Generation speech at Serrano and Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate schools. They were both great audiences and I enjoyed it a lot. RSM was particularly interesting since both my kids went there. You can imagine how thrilled they were that their Dad was speaking to their former teachers (I could almost hear them cringing as I was speaking).
I need to clarify something for anyone reading this who has heard my presentation. I use my kids a lot in the speech to highlight the differences between my generation and theirs. I have some fun with it and I'm concerned that it might come across as me being critical of my kids - instead of poking fun at the differences (which is my intent). I am truly blessed with two remarkable young people and I am exceedingly proud of them and proud to be their Dad. I'm a very fortunate man for many reasons, chief among them being my kids.
1 comment:
I used to go to RSM Intermediate when it first opened.
My experiences with students, teachers, and faculty would fit the very definition of Torture.
I got choked in the locker room unprovoked,the vice principal asks what I did to instigate it, I say I didn't do anything, the students lie and said I made a racial comment apparently against my own ethnicity, the vice principal calls me a racist and then tells my parents that I am a racist, and then gives me a 5 day suspension. She seemed to have forgotten to suspend the guy that choked me.
It wasn't the first and certainly wasn't the last time there was an unprovoking violent assault and then I was suspended for it being my fault.
The teachers ignored it unless I lashed out, which became detention or suspension. If I fought students back, suspension.
Didn't fight back, couldn't tell anyone. Teachers and Faculty always said it's my fault I get beaten up because somehow I "instigate" it. It was a running joke for 2 years.
12 years later it still has an impact. Apparently it's not something you can recover from.
Maybe I should write a book.
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