2017 Life Logs, Days 160: Ollie’s Preschool Graduation

2017 Life Logs, Days 160: Ollie’s Preschool Graduation
Date: Friday, June 9, 2017
Weather: Mixed Day—Clouds, Sun, Drenching Rain; High Temp 70ish F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

This evening, an entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean graduated from the Woods Hole Daycare Cooperative. Well, actually it was Ollie that graduated from preschool, but during the entertainment portion of the ceremony, the children acted out the Dr. Seuss story of “The Sneeches.” In this story, the Sneeches are a group of yellow creatures. If you are not familiar with the story, some of the Sneeches have a green star on their bellies and some do not. The ones with stars think they are superior to those without stars and Sylvester McMonkey McBean, who calls himself Fix-It-Up Chappie, takes advantage of this situation. He offers a Star-On machine for only three dollars per person. Now everyone now a star, but the ones who originally had a star fear they are losing their special status. So McBean offers them a Star-Off machine for only $10 per person. Then he offers everyone the Star-Off machine and the Star-On machine and the Sneeches find themselves running from one machine to the other so they can all be alike . . . until they run completely out of money. McBean leaves the poor Sneeches as a rich man. Obviously, Dr. Seuss intended this as a satire of discrimination and hopefully the little ones performing the story this evening learned that whether you have a plain belly or a star-belly, not one is better than the other. Everyone, no matter what their differences, should be able to get along and be friends. And this is what they teach every day at the Woods Hole Daycare Cooperative. They really don’t stress academics. Instead, they teach little ones how to be kind to one another by treating everyone the way they would like to be treated. And they do a wonderful job of preparing their graduates to enter kindergarten knowing exactly how they should act in school. I applaud their mission.

There has been a Goldstone at the preschool for the past eight years, but now we move on. Ollie looked so grown up this evening when Ms. Becky handed him his certificate, but I can remember the fall of 2013 when Mark walked him to the van so he could go to the Woods Hole Daycare Center for the very first time. Special moments.