For the past few weeks Huck has talked about a special surprise the first graders were cooking up for this morning’s Town Meeting.  He was obviously very excited about whatever it was and told me I had to bring the camera.  Since he’s never used such wonderful language I knew this was going to be good.  And best yet, the entire Tackett family would be able to come too!  All six of us accompanied Huck to school this morning (quite the entourage) and then took our place in the school gym waiting for town meeting to start.  Students filed in and we couldn’t help but notice that all of the first graders were suddenly wearing colorful t-shirts.  Before the big reveal, principal Camille took the microphone and began a serious talk about the restrooms and how they were too messy and that everyone needed to do their part to keep them cleaner, when suddenly loud music filled the room.  Camille was very confused by this unexpected turn of events, when suddenly the gym was transformed into an amazing dance party!

Now of course this was a delightful and very entertaining surprise for all of us, but I found myself yet again at a Muscota Town Meeting getting a little choked up.  Huck’s got the academics down and he probably always will.  He knows all the answers and is a natural leader (borderline bossy know-it-all) in the classroom.  But his teacher Marilyn wanted to help him become more comfortable in his body.  Their class enjoys dance parties occasionally (complete with disco ball), and while Huck enjoys the atmosphere of it, he feels embarrassed to actually participate.  Most of his classmates really know how to dance, some even breakdance, but he tends to hang back.  So after weeks of rehearsal and surprise-keeping, there he was with his people in front of the entire school, unembarrassed and moving his body in ways I’ve never seen.

Thank you, Marilyn.

And here’s another view …