"S" Is For Stress

I was talking with one of my friends at the VFW the other night, and asked her how her granddaugthers were doing.   She said that one of her granddaughters (a fourth grader) was thrilled to death because she's a teacher's aide. She went on to say that her granddaughter went through an interview process for the position.  She even had to wear a dress (compolete with dress shoes) and was interviewed by the teacher. I should have asked my friend if her granddaughter had to fill out an application or turn in a resume.  I wonder how the kid found out about the position?  Did she read about it at Careerbuilder.com or maybe at Monster.com?

I told this story to a co-worker, and lo and behold, she was able to one-up my story. Her grandson, who just started the first grade, is running for student council.  My co-worker said "He couldn't spell 'student council', much less know what one is."  This raises some questions.  What will the first grade student council election be like?  MOst of the first graders won't be able to read the election ballot because they can't read.  The candidates won't be able to make campaign signs or put together speeches because they can't write.  And once elected, what exactly will the first grade student council do?  I don't have a clue.

It's no wonder kids are more stressed out than ever before.  They have to worry about things like student council elections and about how to dress for an interview. And heaven forbid they lose the election or don't get the position they wanted - they'll have to deal with feelings of rejection.  That's way too much pressure for elementary school kids.  Let them be elementary school kids, and leave the elections and interviews and rejection to us adults.