I’m sure that by now you’ve seen the video in which young Jathan Muhar answers the perennial graduation-time question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with an answer to warm any NOC’s heart. He wanted to be Batman. [Ed. note: I guess kindergarteners are a superstitious, cowardly lot. Also, somebody should warn the kid’s parents to never walk down any dark alleys at night. Just sayin’.]
In one short day, it’s been everywhere from Break.com to Gawker to The Huffington Post to the Facebook page of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. But I saw it before it went viral — I saw it live because my 5-year-old daughter was a classmate of his, graduating with him this past Wednesday.
It’s this Bakersfield, California Montessori preschool’s tradition that after each graduate receives her or his diploma, s/he says “My name is __________ and when I grow up, I want to be a __________.” Our oldest graduated from this school several years ago and we’ve seen our share of cops, dentists, doctors, “racers,” dancers, entertainers, and reality television-inspired career choices.
This year, our 5-year-old was the sole aspiring princess (sorry, Justice Sotomayor). And including Jathan, there were two Batmans (Batmen?) and one combination Spider-Man-slash-dentist.
Kids are awesome.
But before all that, the graduates entertained their families with three songs, including, inevitably, “Let It Go” from Frozen. The teachers decided to go for it after seeing most of their girl students singing and acting out the soundtrack on the playground every single day.
One of the most notable culprits, I’m sure, had to be our Emi, who belts out and acts out “Let It Go” and other songs from the movie in full costume on a daily basis, running circles through the house to simulate the appropriate motion and acting out every movement. The teachers did a great job choreographing little movements so the kids could still act it out without running all over the yard, but the performance is exactly what you’d expect when you think “class of 5-year-olds sing that song from Frozen at the top of their lungs.” And our Emi? Well, peep the, uh, very enthusiastic kid second-from-the-left in the bottom row.
