Listen Up

During the school day, from 8:15 until 3:05 pm, we don't permit our students to listen to headphones. The purpose is to ensure that we are connecting with one another during the day. No doubt a few of the students see this as a tiresome rule ----- some of them would rather listen to music. But the idea is to keep them plugged in to the school world and communicating with both their peers and the adults around them. I've always appreciated the policy and lately have come to appreciate it more.

Every morning as JT and I wait in traffic at the final jug handle turn, I see other cars filled with parents and their kids. Often the kids have little earphones in their ears. The parents and their children are together in their cars but separated into their own spheres by those tiny ear buds. I imagine lost conversations and connections between parents and kids, kids who still very much need their parents.

I enjoy my morning ride with JT. We practice his spelling words and visit about the day ahead. The drive home is the same routine ----- a review of our day and discussion of the evening before us. Should we water the garden? What's the homework load looking like? We laugh and share with one another. The time in between is filled with music that JT and I both like. Lately, as we talk and sing together I feel that we are building a bond that I hope will get us over the rough spots of adolescence and beyond.

This is a routine that I learned from my own mom. When she was driving my sister and I to school, we'd listen to the radio and talk. I still remember the day that she insisted that the Journey song was called "Velvet Arms" not "Open Arms" and how my sister and I laughed. I remember jokes and laughter and a forging a bond with one another. That's what I hope to do for my son. Someday, I'd like to wait for those cars at the traffic light each morning and collect the headphones from the families who have them. Talk with one another; laugh with one another, I'd say. Because this time will pass all too quickly.