Things It's Okay to Say After Taking a Test:

• To your classmate: It was okay.
• To a casual acquaintaince: It wasn't too bad.
• To the professor: It went all right, I think.
• To a friend: I actually think I did well.
• To your parents or weblog readers ONLY: I aced it like it was my job.

In other news, I went to the Nonotuck school today to play with the haizi. Good times were had. My favorite bit was when Nathaniel and Hazel explained to me, apropos of our game of House, what constitutes a family: "Some houses have a mom and a dad and some houses have two dads and some houses have two moms." "Yeah and some houses have just one mom or just one dad." "Yeah."

I love Northampton.

I dunno, though. I'm not crazy about the way the grownups at Nonotuck speak to the children, with a funny tone of voice and calling everybody "friend" like a bunch of Quakers: "Hey now, at Nonotuck we don't put toys on the climber because then when friends want to play they won't be able to" etc. Also, at Nonotuck we don't use weapons- no guns, no swords. I'm not a fan of that. I used to be, but now I'm not so sure- not even being allowed to pretend a stick is a sword seems harsh and misguided and reminicent of some sort of Thought-Police. You can't be Inigo Montoya or a knight of the Round Table without a sword. Police officers, alien invaders, soldiers, and cowboys all have guns. What about making a bow and arrow out of two sticks and a piece of string? I'm not saying I'm an advocate of shiny, realistic-looking plastic Uzis or bloody violent video games- I'm not. But not being allowed to pretend something is something else... that's just so repressive. Children need a chance to slay their dragons.