By Sally Torbey
About this blog: About this blog: I have enjoyed parenting five children in Palo Alto for the past two decades and have opinions about everything to do with parenting kids (and dogs). The goal of my blog is to share the good times and discuss the ...
(More)About this blog: About this blog: I have enjoyed parenting five children in Palo Alto for the past two decades and have opinions about everything to do with parenting kids (and dogs). The goal of my blog is to share the good times and discuss the challenges of having a satisfying family life in a community where parents set a high bar for themselves, their children, and the schools and organizations that educate and socialize them. I grew up in the Midwest, attended a small liberal arts college on the East Coast and graduated from medical school in Chicago. I left a pediatric residency to care for our then infant son and spent the next dozen years contentedly gestating and lactating while having four more children. My husband grew up in the Middle East, came to the US for graduate school and works in high tech. Our eldest son graduated from a UC, and after working in the Middle East for a few years, now attends law school in NYC. Our eldest daughter graduated from a Midwestern Big Ten University and is a journalist in Texas. Our middle child studies engineering at a UC. The youngest two girls are in middle and high school in PAUSD. We are celebrating 20 years as PAUSD parents! I volunteer in the public schools, our church, and scouting.
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Congratulations and thank you to Paly Principal Kim Diorio, her administrative team, the chaperoning teachers, the Associated Student Body, and the 750 Paly students who attended the Paly prom last night at the Exploratorium for orchestrating and attending a wonderful evening. The group of students I had the pleasure of seeing after the event spoke enthusiastically about the fun venue with entertaining exhibits demonstrating science phenomena from optics to circuits, beautiful views of the San Francisco skyline, great dance music, and most of all a memorable time enjoying their friends.
Before the event, seeing the young men showered and shaved in their tuxes, with boutineers at the lapel and color coordinated pocket squares, and the young women so elegantly outfitted in gowns and coiffed hair, I was struck by the truths in Danah Boyd's recently published book, "
It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens." She explains that Internet social networking has changed some things about being a teen, but the developmental work of being a teen has not. Teens have the same "fundamental desire for social connection." They "continue to occupy an awkward position between childhood and adulthood, dependence and independence?struggling to carve out an identity that is not defined solely by family tie."
The evening made me nostalgic about my own prom, which I remember whenever I fly into Chicago O'Hare. My prom was held at the airport Hyatt, hardly remarkable now, but back in the 70s an architectural wonder with its four towers of reflective glass and 14-floor high lobby atrium with ivy hanging over all those balconies. I remember feeling so grown up and elegant entering that building for the first time!
A lot of preparation went into making the Paly prom a success: researching and booking a great venue, selling hundreds of tickets, organizing and loading 16 buses, hiring a caterer and DJ, and communicating directly with students and by email with parents concerning expectations of acceptable behavior. Attendees accepted the responsibility, and it was an enjoyable evening for all. I hope all the administrators and teachers who went beyond the call of duty to plan and chaperone the event took a well-deserved nap this afternoon!
