Happy Birthday, Mr. Caurant!

Today is Pat Caurant's birthday. He would have been 29. In his honor, DD#2's school, where Mr. Caurant taught the last four years, encouraged the kids to wear orange, Mr. Caurant's favorite color.

DS#2 had Mr. Caurant for three years, as well as his 7th Grade Homeroom teacher. When I told him about it, he decided to wear orange as well.

Then he took a step that I never expected him to: he encouraged his friends to also wear orange.

Now this year DS#2 is a sophomore. He's also in a new high school, one that is out of our district. A couple of his former classmates are there (and one of them is wearing orange), but, basically, he's had to make friends from scratch.

He seems to be good at it.

DS#2 and DD#2 had their battles with Mr. Caurant. He challenged them, held them responsible for their work (or lack of it), and demanded they do their personal best, always. He wasn't their favorite teacher--but they respected him. And as they move on through high school and college, they're going to appreciate him even more.

Tomorrow, the Student Council has organized a "Tour de Caurant" bike race around the school. And they're selling orange rubber band bracelets.

The picture above seems to be everyone's favorite of Mr. Caurant--Hubs has it on his desktop, the Student Council used it for their flyer. I'm not sure why this picture and not others with him and his students. Maybe because he's got a 'tude in this picture we didn't often get to see.

Oh, yeah. I'm wearing orange, too.