It Doesn't all Suck

Today I was on a filled-to-capacity, three-to-a-seat school bus, representing just a fraction of my son's entire third grade class. We were off to a Chicago Wolves game, a brilliant marketing coup by the hockey league to lure young children into the lair of professional hockey.

Everyone was given a Legoland-sponsored "Get Schooled By Skates" (the Wolves' mascot, who made a personal appearance to the class last week ... very cool) 'workbook' and encouraged to study Wolves Geography (Boris Valabik comes from Slovakia ... is that in Europe, Asia, Africa ... etc.) as well as math (what is the volume of the puck?) and other clever exercises to make hockey an educational experience. Sharp marketing.

The group of 140-plus children was really amazingly well mannered. Not that I was surprised. My kid's a good kid, and all his friends are good kids, so why wouldn't the class as a whole be, well, good kids, right?

But a couple of things put me off-kilter. One was the fact that most of these kids could recite the words to every Katy Perry and Beyonce and Black Eyed Peas and Brittney Spears song ever aired. I asked one cherubic little girl, "What radio station should I listen to in order to hear these songs?", because, in fact, most of them I'd never heard in my life. "B-96 or Kiss-FM," she replied. So I did, on my drive home. Yikes! I do realize that they have no idea what the lyrics to these songs mean, but I had to be at least 14 or 15 before the music I listened to made my parents cringe.

Times, they are a-changing.

The more disturbing development was the use of the word "suck" and the general unsportsmanlike behavior at the stadium. On the bus, a few boys around me started a "Chicago Wolves Suck" chant, until I, in my best Wicked Witch of the East Side of Prospect voice, told them that their choice of language was highly inappropriate.

Then there was the booing at the stadium when the opposing team took the ice. Granted, I don't get out much, and maybe that's the way it's played these days, or the way it's played at hockey games, but booing, I thought, should be reserved to gross misconduct by a player or official? And it was the entire stadium, which was filled with elementary and middle school children from the entire metropolitan area, not just to our group of third graders.

It was just eye-opening to me. That's all I'm saying. Not judging.

But two truths made my day. The first was when a few students seated behind me reacted to some very rough play against the glass. "Well, he's just being a bully, isn't he?" one said while the others agreed.

The other truth was when at home later I asked Luke what he liked best about the field trip. His answer: the mechanical pencil he received from his teacher to fill out the workbook.

Let's just say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.