Premonitions of Parenting

My baseball team has two games every week - on Tuesday's and Thursday's.  And then we have practice on Monday and Wednesday.  On Wednesday of this week, Drew Serratore, the new IRF (Instructional Reform Facilitator) at our school came down to the baseball field to check out the team.  It's the first time he's ever come down and seen our kids play.

Drew happens to be TFA '05, and has proven to be a great friend at work.  He's definitely no substitute for Scott, Sylvia and Mash from last year, but between Drew and Katey, my school support network is in place.  Anyhow, Drew came down while our kids were right in the middle of playing a game called "Coaches vs. Students".  The original idea for the game was that we'd split the students up into three teams: one team played outfield, one team played infield, and the other team would be up to bat.  The idea was that I would pitch full time, and Mr. Young would play catcher.  Unfortunately, it turns out that pitching up close at half speed is really difficult, especially if you haven't pitched for over 10 years, so I ended up walking a lot of kids, or when I was throwing strikes - they just never swung at them.  So I had one of the students pitch.

I'm going to call the student I called in to pitch Lewis.  Lewis is currently in my 7th grade math class, and I also taught him last year.  He is a bright young man, but he has the attention span of a flea.  There have been days where I pull in Lewis after class to follow up with him on some lesson that I don't feel like he fully comprehended, and even when it's just he and I in the classroom, he'll look me in the eye for about 5 seconds before I see his eyes begin to wander.  When we're in class, I'll have to call Lewis' name about 10 times before it seems to register in his brain that I am talking to him.  The point here is, that I think that Lewis has learned to completely tune my voice out.  

The first practice that Lewis expressed interest in pitching, I pulled him aside and we talked about a couple fundamental best practices for pitching.  Very simple things like push off with your legs, or lift your leg up to help build forward momentum, or drop your arm so you aren't throwing from the elbow.  Things like the different from throwing from the stretch and from the windup.  And so I practiced with him, we worked on these things, and I continually reminded him when he'd be throwing in a game when to throw from the stretch and when to throw from the windup.  

But just as in class, Lewis just didn't seem to retain any of the information I told him.  In our game on Tuesday, Lewis pitched the entire time, but he never once correctly identified the situations when he should be throwing from the windup or the stretch, even when I would YELL AT HIM TO THROW FROM THE STRETCH SO THE RUNNERS DON'T STEAL!  But he'd still go from the windup.  The umpire commented to me that this kid needs to learn to throw from the stretch, and I tell him that I've worked with him on it.  Many, many, many times.  But I decide it's worth talking to him AGAIN since the runners are just trampling him, and so I walk out to him on the mound and show him yet once again, what I mean when I say to throw from the stretch.  He looks at me with his wandering eyes, and I ask him if he gets it now, he says yes, I walk back to the dugout, and then he proceeds to throw from the windup.  It just feels like nothing sticks with this kid.

Back to Wednesday.  Lewis is on the mound pitching, and there are runners on the bases.  At this point, we've been playing baseball now for something like 4 or 5 weeks, and I'm just tired of telling him things that he doesn't listen to me about - like throwing from the stretch or dropping his arm when he throws.  Drew shows up to practice, and I notice him talking with Lewis in between innings as we're having the teams move around the field, and demonstrating a couple stances.  The next inning, I see Lewis throwing from the stretch when runners get on the bases, and I notice him more and more dropping his arm as he pitches.  Ok....

After practice is over, Lewis runs up to the other coach, Mr. Young and I overhear him say "Mr. Young!  Mr. Serratore (Drew) today showed me a couple new things that I noticed made a HUGE difference in my pitching!  He showed me how to throw from a stretch when runners are on the bases, and he told me that if I drop my arm when I pitch it'll help me throw the ball faster!  And I did it today and it really worked!"

In my head, I'm as furious as fire.  I want to scream at Lewis and ask him if he has even heard a single thing I've said to him this year - not only on the baseball field, but in class.  But I keep my cool, and mumble to Mr. Young "This most definitely is NOT new to him...." and so Mr. Young says to Lewis "Are you sure this is new?  Is this really the first time you've heard this?" 

Lewis stops for a moment, his eyes narrow, and then he gets this foolish grin on his face and says "Oh yeah... I guess I remember Mr. Woahn saying something about this a couple weeks ago."  

This must be what it's like to have children.  You tell a kid something a million times, but you're just "Dumb 'ol mom/dad".  But as soon as an AUTHORITY figure says something, well then, it must be LAW!  Good grief. Any insight as to why that is?