I’m not feeling safer. I’m not feeling appreciated. But we flew some kites and that made me feel good.

We have had a very wet April. It has rained twenty days out of the month.

April is when I make kites with my kindergarten and first grade classes. And part of the deal is that we go outside and fly them. Which we can’t do if it is raining. Or if there is a threat of a thunderstorm.

My Monday classes finished making their kites weeks ago. They are filled with drawings of rocket ships and monsters, rainbows and princesses.

But we didn’t get to fly them until today. A sunny, blustery, tear-the-kite-into-shreds kind of day.

They loved it. And so did I.

The death of Osama may have been wall-to-wall on cable and public radio, but on the north black top this morning and this afternoon, we were all about kites.

As I stood ready with tape and string to make any repairs, I flashed back eleven years ago to 9/11. My students then would now be the age of many of the troops fighting in three middle east wars.

I don’t know how many of my former boys and girls are there.

But I know that just 15 years ago they were flying kites on a blustery day in April.

Barack Obama says the world is a safer place now that bin Laden is dead.

I just can’t see how that is true.

When I walked into the office this morning there was a pack of post-it notes in my mail box. A gift for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Wednesday is Teacher Appreciation Day.

Our principal is buying pizza for the staff on Wednesday. But half of us won’t be there to enjoy it.

We will be riding on a bus four hours each way to Springfield for IEA Lobby Day. To save our pensions.

It seems to me that it is the very definition of irony that we are spending eight hours on a bus, lobbying some politicians to save teacher pensions from being looted by the state legislature.

On Teacher Appreciation Day.

You will forgive me if I’m not feeling it.