Mrs. Wing’s Super Powers

By the time my oldest son was in third grade, he had attended three elementary schools. For the foreseeable future, our family would be less transient and I think we all felt like we could relax a bit and settle in. The newly built elementary school just down the street from our home was testing a new program called “looping”. Students would have the same teacher for two consecutive grades. There was NOTHING bad about this plan if your child was assigned to Mrs. Wing. Some say she was a great teacher. In my home, she was spoken of as one with super-powers. I would often hear of her kindness, humor and general grandeur in the eyes of Brennen.  

Therefore, the following year, when Bryson was assigned to loop with Mrs. Wing, the news seemed to come to him with a host of angels singing along. He was excited and counted down the summer days until it was his turn to go to Mrs. Wing’s classroom and begin to understand for himself the hero and the legend.

Bry began third grade as an authentic soul. He always wore jerseys; mostly NBA, sometimes NFL…always from the clearance rack. He had an unfathomably vast amount of player statistics memorized. So if a professional athlete’s jersey was sold, Bry knew his significance and contribution through numbers. As we watched games on TV, he would keep running totals of all stats for all significant players in his head and be able to discuss them at will. It was perhaps odd… possibly remarkable…. depending on your level of interest…

Each morning as he dressed for school, he picked out a jersey to wear. Whether it was clean or unclean was not of importance to him. His shorts always “matched”. And then he enhanced his look with an obscene amount of wristbands. His frame was stick-skinny. He placed wristbands on his ankles, biceps, and a few token ones on his wrists. He always completed his look with a headband, grabbed his basketball and jetted out the door for school. I often ran after him with his backpack and sack lunch that had mistakenly been left behind.

Emerging home from school I was given a complete and thorough accounting of recess…only recess…

I knew from his second-grade marks and the stack of “already read it-twice” Harry Potter books that he was reading above grade level. His math skills seemed to be ahead of par as well. However, paper after paper in his backpack had an empty line where he was supposed to write his name. Every time I inquired about it I received the same response… “I forgot…”

As parent-teacher conferences neared, I became nervous about attending. I wondered if (actually- anticipated that) I would be advised about how I should be parenting him differently for him to conform to the simple classroom etiquette of identifying his work with his name printed clearly at the top of each paper. As I nervously sat in the conference I listened patiently as Mrs. Wing reviewed with me his test scores – all well above average. I listened to her delight in his daily self-selected clothing and “accessories”. The conference neared the close and I braced myself hard for the “However….” 

And then she neatly stacked his file in the “conference complete” pile and turned in her chair to get up and walk us out. I couldn’t handle the pressure in my head and I began to blurt…”What about him forgetting to bring his homework back to school?… What about him never writing his name on the top of his paper?…”

She looked at me noting my obvious concern. She paused and calmed me with her eyes. “That isn’t as important as you think. He will figure it out. He’s a very intelligent, happy kid. You’re doing a great job as parents, but don’t worry about it.”

I’m not sure if I doubted her assessment aloud or if I just screamed such in my head. Gratefully, I worked harder to heed her advice. The last thing I wanted to do was squelch my son’s confidence or brilliance by too much focus on what Mrs. Wing articulated as unimportant. After all, she had superpowers…

I look back on Bry’s development and I am extremely grateful for those two years of looping with Mrs. Wing, a master educator with super powers I now understood even as an adult… The opportunity enabled Bry to develop a base of confidence and provided a parameter of perspective for me as a parent.    

Expecting my children to “fit-in” became a thought of the past. I realized that if they choose to follow and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would always be different than the moral and social expectations that surrounded them. Teaching them to embrace the idea of being authentic and finding confidence and peace in doing so became a primary goal in my parenting. Therefore, each of Bry’s subsequent birthdays included a pack of wristbands… a favorite gift of his… and a reminder for me.

-JC

Gingerdoodles

Make a batch of Gingersnaps:
½ cup oil
½ cup soft butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup molasses
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Cream oil, butter, sugars, and molasses with an electric mixer on medium-high for 1 minute or until fluffy. Hand stir in eggs and vanilla; don’t overmix. Add dry ingredients all at once and mix until fully incorporated. Add 2-3 Tablespoons more flour for high elevation. Scoop out approximately 40 -1 1/4” balls of dough.  

Make a batch of Snickerdoodles:
1 cup soft butter
½  cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Cream butter, oil  and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high for 1 minute or until fluffy. Hand stir in eggs and vanilla; don’t overmix. Add dry ingredients all at once and mix until fully incorporated. Add 2-3 Tablespoons more flour for high elevation. Scoop out approximately 40 -1 1/4” balls of dough.  

Mix together Cinnamon Sugar Mixture:

¼ cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons cinnamon


Place one of each, Gingersnap and Snickerdoodle, cookie dough ball on top of the other.
Next, break the dough disc in half and stack. You now have four layers of dough in alternating flavors.
Break in half and stack again. Now, roll into a ball. You will see the marble effect.
Gently Roll dough balls into Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture.

For a richer flavor and smoother texture, form cookie dough balls, flatten slightly, and refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake. Place on greased or parchment paper on an aluminum cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 min. Share!


-JC