2001-11-26 - 10:04 p.m.

Did you know that if you dial "922" on the phone that a sheriff will show up at your door?

My son apparently didn't know that.

Neither did I-- but we all know now!

I think my son remembered the # incorrectly, or else he was just playing around and changed the digits thinking that it wouldn't work.

He had been on the phone talking to his Dad in NY when he accidentaly hit the "hold" button and temporarily lost the call. So he did legitimately need help- as he had no idea of how to retrieve his Dad on the line!

And after all, there wasn't a parent there to help! (No- I was all the way in the living room a whole floor downstairs with his two aunts when I noticed an incoming call from a county office. The call came on my husband's business line- which I never answer, so I let the maching get it. I noted the called ID lisitng the county and commented "That's weird. What county office would be open at 8pm on a Sunday night? I didn't think of the Sheriff's office!)

Maybe my son recalled the training received in school to dial 911 for help.

I can envision the lesson being taught-- the concept being reiterated over and over again. "If you need help and your parents are not around dial 911"

And I can just imagine a teacher being so non specific that there are a bunch of first graders out there who have no idea what kind of help 911 is for:

Johhny is dialing it right now as he can't get his zipper down fast enough in the bathroom....

And Shirley is dialing now as she can't reach the cookie jar, but mom said she could help herself this time! She needs help! But mom is not there-- but all the way in the basement doing laundry....

And Jimmy is dialing 911 because he can't quite remember how to spell "thre"

and he needs to make his letter to Grandpa WEALLY gweat!

After the Sheriff knocked on the door and we figured out what must have happened, we verified our theory by hitting re-dial on the phone handset which was still in my son's room. It showed the last # dialed as "922"

We were both surprised and strangely impressed. It is fantastic to know that if someone legitimatly needed help and hit the wrong digit accidently that the call is still received and responded to.

But is made me concerned about the quality of teaching all the more.

I wonder if all those local kids are dialing "922"

and I wonder what other things they SHOULD be learning that they are learning incorrectly or not at all.

Although I should have asked: what other things are they not teaching here BESIDES history. This is VA so I already know that history is not REALLY being taught. Here they teach history as they would have liked it to be! WHAT WAS THE CIVIL WAR ABOUT??... Economics???

ANd what WAS the first settlement? I have heard it rumored that it was Plymouth, MASS-- (at least that's what my friends from Mass were taught. Here the kids are being taught about the Jamestown settlement as being the oldest U.S. settlement. Hmmm....

Some of the teachers here in VA really do need help! Unfortunately a "922" and a "911" won't be effective for the kind of help needed!

�

�