Finding the GENIUS inside those kids who like to talk back!

In the beginning, sometime after I began drawing landscape plans when I was about 5 years old, to the time I started working in a greenhouse in high school, I had a saying: I like working with plants because they don't talk back!

Not sure where that phrase came from because other than having a very talkative little sister I had no real experience with "talking back."

So to move out of the woods, where I'd been living with 100 year old mighty oak trees for 25 years has been a learning process for me. But now, in some crazy, stubborn, red-headed way (No, I DON'T have a temper to go with that red-hair; well, maybe a little bit!) my heart says: "you don't live in the country anymore, you can't still love the trees".  I know, it's just an emotional response; really I KNOW that.

But knowing something doesn't necessarily halt your imagination's super-power that makes crazy things seem real. Plus, remnants from the three-phased moving process from last year, I guess, are still in my mind adding to the mix.

When the seasons began to change last fall, my first seasonal change in my new house, I had a new  adjustment to city living. Literally. Without the canopy of old oaks covering my house's view of the sky it truly was a new beginning. Now I can see the maples.

The maple trees in my new neighborhood began drifting into hibernation last fall with an  outlandishly vibrant transformation. From green to scarlet, to crimson; to colors of red I felt like I'd never seen before.

It certainly wasn't the same as my life in the country but even a gal with an Ag degree can survive in the city. Right?  I could survive AND enjoy it!

I like kids who talk back!
When my children were young, without me even being conscious of the change, an encroachment for all things educational began it's movement. It overpowered my love for flora. I'll blame my children -their educations made me a junkie!

One day when my oldest daughter was in elementary school her teacher came to me with a concern.

Teacher: "I don't know what to do with her. She answers every question correctly on all the tests we've given."

Me: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

And she said?
The next day I was right back at the school.  Before I got 15 feet into the building I was directed into the principals office. (Fortunately, I loved that principal.)

(Through my whole school career, I'd only been in the principal's office once. That was in 4th grade. I was only a messenger for my dad. That terrified me!)

The principal quickly got to the point and said that my offer to help had alarmed the teacher. To this day I really don't understand why that was threatening, but it was.

The main point of our conversation should have been how to better meet the growing academic needs of my child -and to the principal's credit I always found her to be a good child advocate-but now I know there's so much more we can do.

But that was one of my experiences in the early days of converting from a "I like trees because the don't talk back" kind of gal to a "I love working with the kids that talk back."

In Monday's Columbia Tribune the editor, Hank Waters, had a saying at the end of his editorial that said:

To teach is to learn twice. 

I can teach you about trees; identify their genus and species, but what I truly love, more than my beloved oak and maple trees, is finding the GENIUS inside those kids who like to talk back! 



Trees beginning to turn to red this fall