Baby Geniuses

I've never been one of those people who would love to go back to high school. I hear people say this from time to time, and I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes (you win some, you lose some). Today, though, I experienced something even more bizarre: today, I wanted to go back to elementary school.

As part of a project for one of my classes, I have to shadow counselors in local elementary, middle, and high schools. My elementary and middle schools are part of the same magnet school system. My hometown has one school system, so the idea of a magnet school was new to me. For anyone who doesn't know, magnet schools are for academically gifted students. In a word, this school is MAGNIFICENT. As a child, I loved school. I was excited about going to school (other than my year as the "new kid" in second grade, much of which is blacked out in my memory) in the mornings, and I wanted to play school when I got home. My great-grandmother passed down lots of her teacher stuff to me, including a fabulous sticker collection, and I practiced my handwriting anywhere-- specifically on my mother's books and important documents and most notoriously (allegedly) on the leather couch.

I lived for learning (past tense on purpose), and these elementary magnet students are my scholastic soul mates. This school is "project-based;" that is, they don't use textbooks. Instead, the students do projects and teach themselves. Creativity is like plague here. Three days a week they go to an elective enrichment class: piano, violin, French, German, Drums of the World, guitar, drawing, and so on. And that's on top of their usual studies: creative writing, global studies, Spanish, math, etc.

Basically, these elementary school kids are smarter than me already.

We went around the room and introduced ourselves today, and we each said something we liked. I was expecting things like 'shopping,' 'sleeping,' 'football'... Nope:
"My name's Eliza, and I like to play the violin."
"My name's Lily, and I enjoy writing poetry."
"My name's Price, and I love to read books, especially series."
At which point I asked, "Oh yeah? What series are you reading now?"
-"I'm reading several series, actually."

Oh. While you're at it, could I throw some research articles at you?

So, yes, I want to be back in elementary school. I want to create and explore, to learn new languages and play instruments. And mostly I want to not wonder if I'll get an A, or if I'll pass at all... if I'll find a job one day or maybe even a husband... Life could be so easy if I could just revert back to baby genius.