My daughter, the 14 year old, has entered the world of public school this year. After 9 years at the same Episcopal school she is now attending high school in the public system.

Granted, she has a unique schedule. Half of her day is spent in the local high school taking Biology, Algebra, Spanish 2 and English 1. The second half of her day is 45 miles away in NOCCA's creative writing program. It can make for a long day, but worth every bit. The local high school is a well kept secret of a gem and NOCCA describes her first year "the students will read 16 novels, hundreds of poems, write every day and learn to critically read their works."

BUT, there is little to no dress code at either school and we are having the war on crack. Every morning we have the same "discussion":

me: "Your shirt is too short and your jeans are too low, crack kills"

her: "Mom, you're gross" "I'll pull my shirt down"

me: "No, change shirts"

her: stomp, stomp, huff, huff. Shirt changes.


This morning took a different twist:

me: "your shirt is too short and your jeans are too low, crack kills"

her: "it's OK, I'm going to wear a hoody that will cover it"

She puts on hoody, heads for the door and...

me: "Crack still kills"

her: "I'll pull the shirt down", as she jumps in Dad's car

Today when I picked her up for the transport to NOCCA, crack was killing.

Next laundry day some shirts are going to disappear.