The TAKS Drama

As long as my kids have been alive, they, along with their dad, Uncle Ron, Jeremy, Pawpaw, and Uncle Albert have gone to the Rangers Opening Day at the Ballpark. This is HUGE people...it's one of the few traditions this Pierce family has been able to maintain year after year. Well this year, wouldn't you know that the State of Texas did not even consider the Rangers when they were scheduling the 5th grade Math TAKS test on the sacred OPENING DAY. The nerve! Steve and I had decided that instead of taking Cody out for the day and making him do a makeup, we would let him go and take the test and I would be on red alert to go and pick him up as soon as he was done and deliver him to the others at the Ballpark...hopefully without missing any of the game. The drama was that I actually received a call from Cody's teacher the day before letting me know that her and her co-workers did not think Cody would be able to concentrate on the test because he was so excited about going to the game. I told her I would talk to Steve and we would decide. The more I thought about it the madder I got...realizing that actually the teachers just didn't want anything affecting THEIR scores. Well, I typed up this nice little letter to the teachers letting them know "while we appreciate your concern for Cody, we feel like he is mature enough and focused enough to be able to take the test, do well on it, and still go to the game. If he were not a straight "A" student or made an exemplary grade on the last TAKS...maybe it would be a different story. While the TAKS test is important to us, it is also equally important to us that he continue a family tradition that he has been doing since birth that he will have fond memories of forever." As it turned out, Cody was done with his test by 10:30 and made it to the Ballpark in time for pre-game festivities! Today he found out he passed...we don't know his score yet...but he did pass. Seriously...enough of the TAKS!