My friends,

Spring is the greatest season for my adopted city of Chicago.  I’ve written before on these pages about what I call “pushing spring,” or the efforts Chicagoans make to bring on the warm weather by dressing  inappropriately light before the weather really warrants it.  Typically we can have a day in late March that reaches 70 degrees and then suddenly you can’t find one winter coat on the street from that day on until October shows itself.  I am one of these happy Chicagoans, but we sometimes pay the price for our hopefulness. For example, I left home the other day in capris and sandals and nearly froze by mid afternoon when the temperature had dropped 20 degrees!

In my preschool classrooms, I see all sorts of well-meaning foolishness: Little girls in short sundresses wearing snowboots; heavy cotton tights paired with tank tops and shorts; t-shirts and capris with mittens and hats. Boys, on the other hand, are mostly dressed by their mothers as far as I can tell and are usually dressed appropriately.  I am always tickled when I see boys’ clothing that belies the tough exterior of certain preschoolers. For instance, I have one boy who takes a long time to warm up in music class each week, his folded arms and crossed legs professing his distate of singing and making music and dancing. Let it be noted that this same young boy often wears the sweetest Disney-themed shirts. Make no mistake, this is no mother-dressed son! This boy is passionate about his clothes and claims to dress himself. Getting him to sing and dance often takes some convincing, but fashion, well that’s another matter.

As the 2009-2010 school year draws to a close, I want to thank the schools who provided me with gainful employment! I know it is not easy to find funding for the arts in the economic distress of our time. I know many of you dug deep in order to have me in your classrooms on a weekly basis and I hope you know how grateful I am. It has been a joy and I hope we can do it again next year.

I wish all of you a happy, healthy summer. My family and I will be traveling to the sparkling sands of North Carolina in August for our annual vacation. I am confident that we will find the energy and spirit to face next year, for it is a huge one for our family: our daughter Hope will graduate from Oberlin College and our daughter Hannah will graduate from Walter Payton College Prep. Jay and I will also celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in May of 2011.

Hugs and kisses to you,

Susan