At The Science UNFair

This is supposed to be one of those posts where I report on some accomplishment my kids made, the kind that you probably don't bother to read because it is just Rachelle bragging again... yadda, yadda, yadda. (But the thing is, this here blog is my documentation - I have to, and want to, post it all, for my kids' sake. You understand. And remember, I also mention, often enough, when they are dirty and stinky, and that is all part of the package of a houseful of boys.) Anyway, this is supposed to be one of those "medal count" type of posts. But it isn't, not exactly. It is one of those Rachelle-rants-about-an-injustice-done-on-her-children type post, unfortunately, which makes for more interesting reading on your part, but is not the post I am supposed to be writing right now.

So here goes.

Last night was the county science fair - four counties put together, actually. A big event, and to my kids a big deal. For the elementary school division, the awards ceremony was a very early 5:30 pm, which meant we had to leave at 4pm to drive all the way to San Bernardino to the Orange Show Fairgrounds in time. Of course grandma came, and we had to arrange for a ride to scouts for our older boys- you know the usual arrangements. Nothing is ever easy, is it? But it was worth the trouble, because Derek and Dylan did a good job (no thanks to me) and deserved all the fuss just to hear their names and watch them walk across that stage, right?

Of course right.

We arrive at the fair just before the awards program started. We did not have time to go over to the other building where the projects were displayed, so we never got a peek at their boards, or anybody else's, for that matter.

So the awards began. We sat way in the back - there were a lot of people there - and looked through the program to find the twins' names. There they were - correct and accounted for. We listened through all of the names for the sound of your own kids names (or in our case, some sort of approximation of something that sounds remotely like "VanBuskirk"). First came the bronze medals, fourth grade. The twins are fifth graders, so we weren't anxious. Then they called the fifth graders. You must understand that everybody who participates gets a medal, gold, silver or bronze - because all the projects are good - they all had to win their districts even to be there. You must also understand that the awards are all called in alphabetical order, a group at a time - so "A-G" names will be called, then they all will go on stage, get their medals, and pose for a group picture, etc. Since we are at the end of the alphabet, we had to sit through several groups of names before they got to our group. Finally they finished up the 5thgrade bronze list. When they got to "W"s, we knew we were in good shape! That meant they must have won a silver or gold!

Then we had to sit through the 4th grade silvers, and through all the groups of 5th grade silvers. A when they got to the last group we listened carefully to every name. When they got to the "W"s we were pretty excited! That meant they won gold! We were congratulating them and they were feeling pretty darn good. Of course, we still had to wait for their names to be called as a formality, so they could walk up on that stage and get their medals, and we could take pictures and whoop and hollar, right? So we sat through all the 4th grade gold medal names, then FINALLY, all the fifth graders, group by group. They got to "R"s, then that group stopped and took a group shot. "This is it! We are next!" The very last group of the whole evening. We waited in anticipation, and then the announcer got up and announced that they would now announce the sweepstakes trophy. Huh?

We were confused. Did they forget to read off the last group? What was going on? Surely someone would catch it and quietly lean over and tell the announcer that he missed something. But that never happened. The announced the sweepstakes winner, and it was all over and everyone was leaving. I was bewildered. Maybe I was wrong about them giving everybody a medal. We're their projects so bad that they were rejected at first sight and no medals were given. Who knows?

We hopped up and made our way through the exiting crowd to the officials at the table by the stage. Dennis explained it to some ladies that were processing through all the paperwork. They looked on their list and said that the twins names weren't on the list. OK, so they got overlooked somehow, right? I mean, their names were in the program. We had to wait while they went and checked their computer. Turns out that both of them were marked as "no-shows" because their projects never arrived. I rushed over to the building where the projects were displayed. Sure enough, their projects were not there!

The middle school students bring their projects themselves to the Science Fair a few days prior and meet with the judges, etc. But for the elementary students, they simply drop off their projects to the district who delivers all the projects, then show up for the awards ceremony.

Well, we delivered both projects on the right day, to the person in charge - the very lady listed in the paperwork. She even had short conversation with the boys, asked them about themselves, their projects, etc. The we left her with the projects, assuming, of course, that they would get to where they needed to go.

Apparently not.

All the other elementary school projects from our district were there and accounted for. Just not ours.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

So then we just all stood around not knowing what to do. It apparently wasn't the fault of the science fair, since the projects apparently never arrived in their care. They felt bad, but weren't sure what to do. It was all over, and their projects were never judged. That was it.

The looks on my boys' faces - wide eyes, bewildered, and forlorn - were just heartbreaking!

Finally the officials decided to give them bronze medals by default. So they climbed on stage, right before the middle school awards were about to begin for their lame photo op, so I could take this picture. They were sweet to force smiles for the camera.

And that was it. Bronze by default.

Dylan's expression says it all.

So we went home. We stopped for dinner at Bob's Big Boy, and the hot fudge sundaes seemed to help a lot (unfortunately, I am trying to lose weight, so no hot fudge therapy for me. That's probably why I am still fuming.)

I tried to say things like "In a way this is better than just getting bronze medals, because there is at least the possibility that you could have won a silver or gold." Yep, it sounded lame coming out of my mouth. I wasn't much help.

Dennis was better, telling him it was no big deal, that they were winners in his book, that they had worked hard, and that is all that mattered. I went along with it, but inside I was fuming. I have a huge issue with injustice toward children, especially MY children. We had already gone through all this with these same kids a few months ago with their Lego robotics thing, remember? These poor twins seem to always get the shaft! I steamed all the way home.

Then, to top it all off, Alex calls to tell us that at scouts they announced that 11 year-olds (that would be the twins, of course) would not be allowed to come to scout camp, this summer like they were planning, even though 11 year olds have ALWAYS gone in the past, as long as the father comes with him. But our by-the-book scoutmaster insists that it is, and has always been, church policy that you must be twelve. Now I don't know if that is a rule or not, but if it is, then up until now it has either been overlooked or unheeded, apparently. But not this time. Period. Even so, it made for a double-whammy blow for two boys that were already pretty down.

We finally got home at 10pm. I didn't sleep well of course.

This morning Dennis and I went down to the school district, hackles up to try to get some answers. (Why does it seem like every time we go down to the school district we have to prepare to put up a fight? Anybody else feel that way?) Well, as soon as we walked into the office, the receptionist knew exactly who we were. She explained that the woman responsible, the very woman we had handed the projects to, was in Chicago (how nice!) and that the person who works with her was also out on an emergency, so there was nobody we could talk to. Maybe next week. Ugh!

Do you think by next week they can locate our kids' science projects?

But really, what does it matter? There is nothing that can be done. The science fair is over. That's it.

I think about those stories like at the Olympics where the athlete was given the wrong schedule so they show up for their race that they have been preparing for their whole life and it is already done. It is not fair, but what can you do? They can't re-run the race.

But these are little kids, and they deserve a fair shake. This shouldn't have happened. Someone messed up big time and obviously a system was not in place to catch the mistake. They really need to check and double check everything, so some other kid doesn't have the same thing happen to him.

The worst part for me is that my boys really thought they had won gold medals. They were SO excited! Then to see their faces go suddenly from joy, to confusion,to dejection - that was the worst part. After all the work, and rework, and paperwork, and long drive, and long wait for their names... nothing. And it was entirely not their fault.

That's what I call a Science UNFair.