A Good Lesson on Recycling

Deondre's never really loathed doing homework. Nor totally loved it. He's been pretty diligent, knows he does it right after school or internet games and outdoor play ain't happening. But tonight as we were sifting through 12 pages of math word problems, something came up that gave him a new kinda gross outlet on it.

First let me rewind and say he's in this special after school program called "Please Stand Up" where he learns leadership skills, how to set a good example, etc. Today they were evidently talking about recycling and overnight he turned into the "Circle of Arrows Police" in the house. The math word problems he was working on took up like 1/2 page each needlessly, while leaving the other half BLANK. The graphic designer in me rolled my eyes at the terrible typography and waste of good space and noted to Deondre that it was, in fact, a ginormous waste.

Mr. Circle of Arrows holds it up and says "Oh, don't worry mom, we can RECYCLE it in school after we check through it". Can't argue with that.

Now I got to thinking about one of my clients who is in the paper recycling and confidential document shredding business - they always told me that schools were gigantic waste paper makers. I asked a while ago what the paper they take in eventually gets reused as and a lot of it ends up in more coarse paper towels (think Thruway rest stops) and toilet paper. I thought I'd share that knowledge with Deondre. Good fact on recycling, right?

So I say, "Your homework could end up as toilet paper, you know."

And he looks at me and says "So I'd be wiping my butt with my homework????"

I gotta go with that one. Hell yeah - in a sense you totally could one day be doing that. No comeback.

But now I think that homework will look a little different to him for the rest of his school days. As long as he's up for taking the recycling and garbage out for me, I'm good with it.