Putting It Nicely

A little over a week ago, my eldest participated in a local homeschool co-op's standardized testing. As part of the deal, I had to volunteer my services as a classroom helper throughout the three days that we tested. Homeschoolers are unique in that, they are not used to sitting still, and many often don't sit at desks or tables to do their work at home, so this rigid experience tests them (literally and figuratively). I was a helper for the third grade class. The person that adminstered the test in our room was very good (maybe too good) about letting the kids get their wiggles out between test sections, and she allowed them to dilly dally at our scheduled break times. Unfortunately, our grade level had more sections to test than the others, so this extra "wiggle time" put us even further behind the other classes when it came to wrapping up each day. This mattered to me since my eldest was waiting on me everyday, some days a half an hour or more, so I was inclined to try to keep us on schedule, and plow ahead. I was the one dragging the kids back into the room at the end of break time, and encouraging them to hang in there for one more section so we could "be done". I could tell that this was not an important mission for the test administrator. She was VERY relaxed. On the last day, when we were finally done, she thanked each of the kids for their perserverance and patience, and then she thanked me for helping to keep everyone on task and keeping an eye on the time. The way she said it, actually sounded more like, "Clearly, you are anal retentive, but thanks for helping anyway". Oh well, at least she put the words nicely. Besides, what kind of world would this be if there were no anal retentive people to keep us all on task?