This is an update that relates to the post Not Enough Learning.
I dont know if I should feel pride or feel shame. Is it Pride that my son is a satirist in the making or am I ashamed that I have exposed my kids to my distain for the school’s singular focus on tests? Have I poisioned my kids and undermined the schools administrators?
We are in the middle of testing lock down. All the kids are taking Connecticut’s Mastery tests this and next week. The testing schedule has totally wreaked havoc with my mornings. I am up at 6:15 to get Georgie out of bed and Cal doesnt leave the house until 9:30. Thats 3 hours and 15 minutes to get the kids off to school, a task that normally takes an hour and a half…Makes for a long morning.
Well the above is neither here or there, back to my child’s creative writing. Earlier this week I asked Owen after school how the testing had going. He had had a prompted writing test. He was laughing to himself as he told me the prompt was something to this paraphrased effect: “Write a letter to your principal and tell her who (fictional or real-life.)should be invited to your school to make it even a better school”. So my son creates a character named Lucas Cantakeatest. Lucas has superhuman powers when it comes to influencing average test scores and he can singlehandedly improve a school’s ranking to the point of guaranteeing the continued status of ”American’s Blue Ribbon School”. Good one O.
Ashamed but laughing.






Thursday was Cal’s 12th birthday. Today he is having 4 buddies over for a sleepover. He is outside making water balloons as we speak. He is a cutie and will always be a needy, cuddly but wonderfully funny and ironic teddy bear. I think Cal enjoys his birthday as much as anyone. Loves being the center of attention in a sweet self-conscious kind of way. And yes, in the last photo, those are almost industrial grade fireworks being shot off the cake, inside the house. It very much de rigueur for birthday cakes in Argentina.






My name is Callum O’Connell. I make stop-motion animations with Legos. I made my first one when I was in 4th Grade with my friend Sherlock. We made it about a dancing Bionicle but it was only like 5 seconds. My second one was with my friend Marco and it was about Star Wars. I actually made 2 with him. My 4th was with my dad that was around 1 minute and was about a guy who wants to find the holy pizza. Then all the ones after that are on my you tube channel: 





