Legacy Time

Back in the day when I was in elementary school in Cedar Falls, Iowa, we were given a sealed envelope on the last day of school.  We were not allowed to open the envelope until the final bell rang.  Said envelope contained our class placement for the following year.  The wait from the time we were handed the envelope until that last bell sounded just about killed us.  Then in the third grade I switched schools, and started attending a very tiny private school.  It only had one class per grade, so there was no more waiting to see who your teacher would be for the next year.  You just knew:  third grade was Mrs. Flamm; fourth grade was Mrs. Sharon; fifth grade was Mrs. Owens, and so on.

Oak Park does things a bit differently.  The students don't find out their class placement until the week before school starts.  This long wait has just about done in each one of my kids at one point or another, and this year is no exception.  We'd been told to expect the class lists to go up outside Irving School at 4pm this afternoon.  By 3:40 Drew just couldn't wait any longer.  While we started out walking together, Drew sprinted the last block to see whose classroom he'll be in starting next week.  By the time I walked up, this was the scene:

Drew will be in Ms. Payton's fourth grade class.  Ms. Payton has the distinction of being the only Irving classroom teacher to have all three Shattuck children as her students.  For the first time Drew's a legacy, and he's thrilled.  So am I!