Badge of Honor

shout·cast

[showt-kast, -kahst]verb, shout·cast or shout·cast·ed, shout·cast·ing, noun, adjective, adverb, verb (used with object)

1.   to transmit (message) at high volume person to person at close range, usually unintentionally. See vintage “Saturday Night Live” skits, “News from Ten Feet Away” http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xktxv5_saturday-night-live-news-from-ten-feet-away_fun .

It’s funny what kids remember and when they choose to share their recollections. My son recently recounted an episode from his days almost a decade ago at his Montessori pre-school. A little background first—he’s always been drawn to badges: shiny sheriff’s badges in the shape of a star, Boy Scout merit badges, and the like.

Moreover, he really enjoys figuring out how things operate. So he spent a lot of time using the pump-action little sink in his pre-school classroom. He told me that he would spend as much time as possible trying to fill a little bucket, ounce-by-hard-earned-ounce, before the “directress” (Montessori speak for teacher) would re-direct him to another activity. I disabused him of the notion that this little wooden cabinet with sink was attached to the main water line. Always the empiricist, he asked for proof, which I provided in the observation that the assistant directress would bring in a fresh bucket of water in the morning and put it in the cabinet. We think there was a second bucket for the drain!

Once this Everest was climbed, my dear son turned his attention to the chair and desk washing activity. A Montessori classroom, where “play is the work of the child” (Maria Montessori), is an orderly display of “gifts” (F. Froebel) accessible for educational exploration. Once he received the lesson on chair/desk washing, he enlisted the help of his fellow explorers. With a rousing call to rival Henry V on St. Crispin’s Day, my son said, “Let’s scrub them so clean, we’ll get a badge of honor!” And so they set out to do so.

At the end of the long arduous day (noon), his directress presented him with a… wait for it… Badge of Honor! By his own account, she “totally blew his mind! How did she know?!” She, of course, being the ever-vigilant but never-interfering directress, was in earshot earlier in the day whilst the plans were being made; or as my son puts it, “probably shoutcasted”.

Thanks to KK for making a distinct difference in my son’s life…