Yesterday was the first day of school, that annual ritual that’s as tough on some parents as it is their kids. We began the morning with French toast and  the flurry of activities we hadn’t done in three months: ironing clothes, packing lunches, Jake doing his CF breathing treatments; Sophie tinkling the keys of the piano; brushing teeth and taking the traditional “first day of school” photo in front of our fireplace. Everything went so smoothly I even had time to water the front bushes. With a short lull before the big walk to school I turned on Sophie’s iPod to play some of the kids’ favorite songs. It didn’t take long until the Ramones’ “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)” began and we were all bopping our heads up and down.

For those of you who may think I’m an ultra-hip parent trying to cultivate his children with great protest songs from the ’80s, hold off. This Ramones song, one of our family favorites, is known as the “School of Rock song,” thanks to director Richard Linklater, who used it so expertly in the Jack Black film during the “coming together” montage. (more…)