Join Me in Snarkville

I have a basic English question — when did we shift from using the word “respect” to “honor”?  In my way of thinking, respect and honor are not in fact the same thing.  Oh, yes, they seem to have similar components, but at their core there is something different.  To respect someone (or in the case I’m going to talk about once my rant gets full force — my time) means that you believe this person to be no less than yourself.  You would treat them as you want to be treated and nothing less.  To honor someone means more about the public acknowledgment of achievement or even of respect — but at its core, it is public.  We honor someone with a parade or a citation.  However, we show our respect in our daily dealings with this person.

Yes, yes, I know this becomes grey when I tell someone that I’m honored to meet them.  You don’t say, “I respect the pleasure of meeting you.”  Or how does, “I honor your wishes.” come into play with this?  English is an odd, odd language.  But I tend to think of honor is something you feel and respect is something you give. 

Then today happened.  This morning, Prince and I took a tour of one of two schools we are considering for precious Duke’s brain to be molded into a learning machine.  We have picked two vastly different schools, one traditional and one non-traditional.  We take the second tour next week.  I could spend hours telling you why I firmly believe that Duke needs to go to BOTH of these schools at the same time — but we are being forced to chose.  How dare they?

So, we show up 3 minutes before the required 9am and are two of 4 parents (3 families) in the room.  The tour was for 10 students worth of parents.  We wait a few minutes when Miss Teacher announces, “To honor the parents who are here on time…we are going to get started.”  What???  Am I getting an award for showing up on time??

I’d worry more if this was actually a potential teacher for Duke, but no, she molds older kids minds.

Now on to school number one.  Prince declared after the introduction to the school that this is the reason he hates people.  It isn’t all people, it is the people with a chip on their shoulder who didn’t look around at all and began to ask questions about the extra classes, the test scores, and was rather aggressive about it.  Then we walked through a class that was literally a mess.  No, seriously a mess.  The rooms have clothes lines the run across the class room and they were full of art.  It was creative and inspiring, if you are 3′ to 4′ tall and not 5′ 4″ tall.  But another mother wanted to know why the rooms were a mess.  Ummmm.

All in all, we liked the school, though we are excited about school number two too.  This school has advantages like a great schedule, high parent involvement, included working in groups of 5 kids at a time; gardens; art and music programs; and free salad bar.  Yes, you read that right.  Prince thinks the library is small (though there are large libraries in every classroom).  I worry about the limited computers in the classrooms, but enjoy the focus on love of reading, hands on learning (there’s something cool about every 3rd grader having a microscope in the classroom to themselves), and a mentor program that encourages kids to teach each other.

There was a part of me that hoped this tour would clarify our choices but the reality is that is merely confirmed that the two schools we like most are a no lose proposition — which frankly isn’t a bad place to be.

So, I best check dress codes and start planning a school wardrobe for a small, excited boy who is looking forward to going to “Big Boy School.”