A Captive Audience…

Main Entry: cap·tive

Pronunciation: \ˈkap-tiv\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Latin captivus, from captus, past participle of capere

Date: 14th century

3 : being such involuntarily because of a situation that makes free choice or departure difficult <a captive audience

Whew….I survived a visit to my son’s second grade classroom.  While I LOVE to be involved in school activities, I suffer from pre-anxiety jitters prior to almost every event.  Today I presented a mini session (30 minutes) to the classroom on writing stories.  My son’s teacher (who totally rocks, by the way) had asked me to come in and talk to the group because of my own experiences with trying to write a novel.  They were a captive audience (heck, they couldn’t walk out)…I’m just not sure they were captivated.  Frankly the kids are so darned polite it’s difficult to gauge their true reactions.  One thing I do know is that my son will have feedback for me after school.  It won’t be pretty.  Inevitably he’ll point out a stumble I made or a joke that fell flat.  I’ll thank him for his constructive criticism and walk away vowing to steer clear of elementary schools in the future.  By next month we’ll both have forgotten our embarrassment and I’ll be ready to go back and volunteer again!!!!