My dad breaks the rules

So, last Wednesday was career day at my school. I don't remember having a career day at my school when I was a kid but they were often part of television shows like Full House. Uncle Joey didn't show up at this career day but it was still good.

The way this one worked was that professionals came to our class in groups of three for three rotations. My dad was in the first rotation for my class. Unfortunately he had to follow a representative from the SPCA and an animal cop. The animal cop was one of the ladies from the show, Animal Cops." She goes where animals are being abused and arrests those doing it. She even remarked on our class turtles, Gary and Susan. I had been told it was illegal to sell turtles that size but how could I pass up $5 a piece at the Flea Market? She said that having them as pets is illegal but you can have them for educational purposes. They are really more like class mascots than educational tools but I wasn't going to tell her that lest she take them away.

So, my dad had to follow the animal cop. Somehow law is not as interesting as animals. He did a good job, though. He tried to use third-grade friendly language and examples. He used some of my kids' names in his examples, which is always a hit. The best part of the whole day was when he called on one of my students. She said that he had broken a rule. When he asked what, she said, "You called Miss Hightower by her first name." She had a point and we all had a good laugh as my dad explained that being my dad gave him the right to call me by my first name.

The other guests were pretty good with the exception of this geeky middle-aged audio/visual technician. He explained his job in technical terms that even I had trouble following. He spent more time talking about Chicago than his job, which was probably good since his job was so boring.

One of my students' fathers came and shared about how he had come to Texas from Mexico and didn't know English. He also told them that he had failed the fifth grade. But despite these challenges, he is now a very successful technologies specialist with a post-graduate degree. This was great for them to hear since many of them have failed grades already. I was glad he shared that with them.