Activism

Yesterday and today the 7th graders at Ereckson took a statewide standardized test.  They've been preparing for this test and talking about it for months, so on both days, I made sure to arm Spell Girl with a really good breakfast and extra healthy snacks to ensure the best possible brain capacity.   

When I picked up Spell Girl from school, I expected to get a full report about the test and how she felt about the day.  Here's what I got instead...

Me:  Hi Girlie!  How was your day?  

SG:  Mommy!  I got SOOOO mad today! 

Me:  At who? 

SG:  Well, not at a person.

Me:  Uh oh...not one of those injustices to mankind again?

SG:  YES!  Mommy, don't make fun of me.  This is totally serious.  We need to DO something!

And then for the next 20 minutes she launched into this tirade about the excessive use of paper by the State of Texas and how outraged she was that they only put ONE question on some of the pages.

SG:  Mommy!  There was ONE question and then the rest of the page had NOTHING ON IT!  What are they thinking??  Do they realize that if they just increased it to TWO questions on a page, they would still have room for working space and it would cut down on the paper.  The books would be lighter so the teachers wouldn't have to carry all those heavy test booklets.  The test would look smaller and be less intimidating for the students.  And less paper means MORE TREES and MORE OXYGEN.  DO THEY NOT KNOW THAT WE NEED TREES FOR OXYGEN!  

She also mentioned that every time she turned the page, she got more and more upset...

SG:  Every time I turned another page and saw all that blank space, I just wanted to write all over the bottom of it...WHAT A STUPID WASTE OF PAPER!  SAVE THE TREES!!

You would have to live with my little Spell Girl to understand why this is so humorous and endearing.  She is the most mild mannered, peaceful, compassionate little thing.  She loves animals, teachers, children, and flowers.  She is infinitely patient and gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.  So to hear her enraged about anything definitely gets our attention.  I just let her go on and on about her horror at the carelessness of the government...because really, there wasn't a lot I could say to change her mind.   

I don't know where she gets this activism streak in her personality.  It certainly doesn't come from me or her dad.  But it's so exciting to see her passionate and moved toward a purpose.  I'm not sure if she's planning to write a letter to the test assessors or if she'll skip all the little people and go straight to Governor Rick Perry, but I guarantee someone's going to get an earful.  

I look forward to many more years of tree hugging, trash picking, recycling movements from this  girl!   What a total joy it is to have all these different personalities in my house!