Pomp, Socks and Circumstance

Max’s last day of school was Friday, and Helen finishes tomorrow.  For Max’s last day, they had a final homenaje (flag ceremony) during which the sixth grade class passed the flag to the fifth grade class.  To receive the flag, the fifth graders had to swear to defend the flag with their lives.  Personally, I think it is too early to give kids that responsibility.  Then again, among Mexico’s most popular folk heroes are the Niños Heroes de Chapultepec (child heroes of Chapultepec) – six teenagers who martyred themselves in 1847 to protect a Mexican fort against the invading United States forces.  I thought I saw Max taking the oath, but he says he just mouthed the words “si juramos” (yes we swear) so he would not get in trouble for not participating.

Someone is excited about the last day of school!

Max and his English teacher.

Max and his Spanish teacher.

The fifth graders.  Max is back row, center.

The graduation/homenaje ceremony.  (Max is fourth from the left, if you have your magnifying glass handy.)  There is an honor guard of soldiers on the right.  They came with cornets and machine guns.

The soldiers' marching was impressive, but I did not know it was possible to play a cornet -- which has no keys -- out of tune.

For reasons that are not clear, Helen’s graduation is spread over two days.  Today they awarded diplomas, and tomorrow there will be a dance performance.  For the dance, each class will represent a different decade.  Helen’s decade is the 1940s.  We received a handout with pictures of four dresses to choose from and instructions to wear something similar in any color with flat shoes.  I will not go into how this happened, but Helen now owns one of each model dress.  Doña Tayde made one, and Cristi made three.  We are curious which one Helen will choose.

While the instructions for tomorrow’s outfit were fairly loose, the dress code for today's diploma ceremony was not as flexible.  At the beginning of the year we received a booklet with drawings of the different school uniforms, including a picture of the uniform for “formal occasions.”  When Helen got dressed this morning, that is what she wore: shirt, vest, skirt, leather shoes, and long, blue socks.

Formal uniform.

It appears, however, that there has been a change in the formal uniform since the time they printed the booklet.  Except for a few of the very little girls, who wore blue tights, the rest of the girls -- and all of the girls in Helen's class -- wore short, white socks.

Helen's class.  Notice the girls' white socks.  Helen is in the back (where her socks are hidden).

Natalie and I noticed that Helen was wearing different socks, but we smugly commented to ourselves that at least one family knows how to follow instructions.  But then we got the call.  At the beginning of the semester, we had listed our neighbor, Arely, as an emergency contact.  The school called Arely once, when Helen had a stomachache, but that is all.  So when Arely called me in the middle of the ceremony (there is no need to turn off your cell phone here – nobody ever does it), I was surprised.  Arely apologized for bothering me, but she needed to reach me because the school had left a message:  Helen had the wrong socks, could we bring white ones?

Natalie and I did not enter full panic mode, like we might have done if this were earlier in the year, but we were nervous.  On Friday the school did not let our friend’s daughter participate in the seventh-grade ceremony because she wore the wrong vest.  There was a distinct possibility Helen would not be called forward to pick up her diploma or be allowed to sing in the class song.  The thought of that, and how crushed Helen would be, since she was so excited to be in the ceremony, made Natalie seriously consider running to a store to buy socks in the five minutes that remained before they called Helen’s class. 

We decided to sit tight.  All semester we have felt the lower school is more reasonable about things like uniform infractions than the middle school.  Sure, they might call home to see about getting the right socks, but they would not exclude a kid from graduation over it.  (You might recall a certain 10-year old who had to miss PE class because his shoelaces were dirty.  Click here to see the photo.)  Fortunately, we were right.  A teacher adjusted Helen's blue socks so they were as high as the other girls' white ones, and they let Helen participate in the entire event.  We all were  thrilled.  Especially Helen, who was so proud to graduate to "tercero año."

Helen with classmates and her English teacher. 

Helen and her Spanish teacher.

Helen and her friend. 

Helen and another friend. 

Who says five is too young to receive a diploma?

Now that school is over, we have a month of vacation before we go home.  We will go to the beach in a week, and spend the rest of the time in Oaxaca.  For me and Natalie, of course, the entire trip has felt like a vacation.  But the kids worked hard in school.  They have earned some r & r, even if that means vegging in front of the computer to watch a movie, as they did the other day. 

On a closing note, happy Fourth of July!  We are on our way to a barbeque with a group of expats.  It is a fundraiser for the Oaxacan Lending Library, an English language library in town.  Oddly, I usually feel the most patriotic when I am in a different country.  It is a case of distance making the heart grow fonder.  --Harrison