Book 40!

Frank Portman's novel, King Dork was one of the best novels I've read all year.  He totally nails the soul destroying institution known as High School (and how sad is it that it hasn't changed in the 30 years (gulp!)since I was there.  Tom Henderson (the King Dork of the title) is such a fully realized young man that I never for a moment felt as though I was anywhere but in his head and in High School again.

The book is also amazing for it's riff on popular culture and a running gag is the every changing names, lineups, album titles and songs for the rock band that Tom and his friend Sam have started.  My personal favorite was Ray Bradbury's Love-Camel w/ Moe-Moe on guitar and Scammy Sammy on bass and calisthenics.  First Album: Prepare to Die.

I couldn't put the book down.  As a parent of young kids, I definitely could use the reminder of how cruel kids are to each other and how disinterested and actively damaging some of the adults encharged with teaching them can be.  I'd home school 'em but as one of my high school aged acquaintances put it "then you'd really ruin all their chances of a social life".  I think I will be buying several copies as gifts for not only a bunch of teens but their parents.

OK, so I was about to hit the publish button and realized that I had more to say about public school and how much it sucked.  I will be 45 years old tomorrow and I still think of most of the time I spent in public school as just that "time", you know, in the same context as time spent in prison.  I was beat up, tortured, and assaulted by kids because I was tall and liked to read.  I was groped at just because I had breasts and complaining to teachers and administrators just marked you as a "crybaby" or worse.  I had a fifth grade teacher take me aside and tell me that if I tamed my curly and a little wild hair, and acted more demure and lady like I'd do better with the kids and in his class.  Many years later when I heard that he had committed suicide, while the adult part of me felt sad that anyone should feel driven to such an  act, the 10 year old jumped up and down with glee.  I had principals tell me that the "groping" was either my fault or to be expected because "boys will be boys".  I was once trapped in a science lab (6Th grade folks, I would have been 11) by two male classmates who exposed themselves, and while one held me down the other threatened to rape me.  I went ballistic and got in trouble for hurting them because (all chime in now) "boys will be boys".  Junior High and High School girls were the worst with their cliques and inability to just leave anyone different alone. 

And yet.  Who I am today was in some way shaped by all my earlier experiences.  The dearest friends I have today come from the place I found myself when at just shy of 17, I walked out of high school and never looked back.  I got a GED in my sleep the next week and then took classes at a local college where I also played D+D.  Almost every single one of my dearest closest friends, my family of choice, came directly and indirectly from that period.  We're all a little geeky and have odd somewhat sardonic senses of humor.  We're cynical and more importantly we care fiercely about each other, our families and our world. 

And one more thing, when I moved back to the area after being away for almost 20 years, I bumped into some of my school days tormentors.  Not a single one has ever been anything but pleasant.  If they mention our youth at all they will say something along the lines of "you were such an individual, I really admired that."  It puzzles me but I'm over it most days and while Portman's book brought a  lot of it back it does it in a kind of hopeful way.

All the above said, I hope I have a good enough relationship with my kids to really hear what they are saying and to give them the skills and foundation they need to avoid crap like I went through.