From the rubble

something will grow

Mr. Discipline

Now…. it could be me. BUT in the last two weeks - since the TeRrible UMPire has come into his position I have had to deal with more discipline, more poor student behavior, more poor judgment than I have in the prior first 5.5 months of the school year. And no, it’s not just students in my class. 3 of the 5 occurrences were me being pulled in to deal with issues in other areas. Lying. Meanness, general lack of consideration. Sigh.

One case, I have to say, was really quite entertaining. I came out of the teacher’s lounge during lower school lunch and heard two girls yelling a boy's name. I looked to find him and saw this hefty little fellow running around the courtyard, in the walkway, knocking on each classroom door and then running to the next. Knocking and running. Knocking and running. This… this is not a kid that usually runs. And he was working his way around the entire school. I think, “oh, this is bad”. I start to cut across the courtyard on an intercept path. Halfway out, I yell his name. No response. He’s still going. He’s almost to the middle school classrooms. They’re in session If he gets there he’s going to get in big trouble. I run toward him and yell again. He finally hears me and stops. Phew. He looks like he’s got a major adrenaline rush going. He’s positively glowing.

“Hey, that’s a really bad idea, doing that.” A blank look. I have to explain to him how he’s disrupting classes and if he’d hit some middle school classes the teachers would have been really upset. A little less of a blank look.

Later I learn that the two young ladies had dared him to do it. Sheesh. Then I had to go talk to them too!

—--

In another instance I had a student misbehave in my class and then go all stubborn. I reported it to his classroom teacher since it seemed like a potential troublesome trend. The next day I got a letter in my box from the young fellow. An apology. Seems good at first but when I read it he’s apologizing as if something entirely different happened. A whole new truth.

Sigh.

An apology written to mollify the parents. That’s what this was. I do wonder what they think actually happened. I pull him aside at recess and talk to him. I show him his note and tell him I don’t understand what he’s apologizing for. I ask him what he was actually in trouble for, and he can actually tell me. I tell him that what I would really have appreciated, what would have meant something, was an apology in person.

Sigh.

And two students messing around broke some equipment… I got pulled into that one. They were honest and full of remorse. They’ll get to help me fix it.

And a student may have done something that will impact their life… for the rest of their life… and I got pulled into that. And it really sucks. Some things can’t really be fixed.

But I listen. And ask them questions. And verify. And in most of the cases, I do appreciate their honesty. They have been, except for the apology fellow, amazingly honest with what they have done and what happened. I do take hope in that.

They are living in a shattered world… and from it there will be growth. It may just not be exactly what we expect. I do hope that it will be more beautiful than anything I expect or can anticipate.

This week is Catholic School’s Week.

Jubilee. Pilgrims of Hope. That’s what it is all about. At our school we went on a big “pilgrimage” of our own. It started at the church with prayer and then the entire student body went on about a mile long hike/loop around a local lake and back to the school, and church, again.

My job was to scout the route first to make sure there was nothing unexpected. I scouted it 30 minutes before. There was one shady character digging through trash cans on the far side of the lake. I made a mental note to come back and hang out over there as the kids went by. The rest was good to go except for a couple of piles of dog poo.

The pilgrimage starts and I head over to the lake. A van providing food and medical services for the homeless has magically appeared blocking the path. Dozens of scraggly looking folks are there. A bit unpredictable. Shoot. We’ll have to go around. I walk around the lake and see the shady character leaving. Good. But then I get over to some equipment for the fitness trail and there’s a lady there with funky, hang by your feet boots. I tell her that the entire school is about to walk by. She says, “ok” and I think. Oh good. She’s going to wait.

A few minutes later the front of our group appears. I let the lead teacher know she should veer off the trail before the food truck and I start taking photos. As they pass, the woman leaps up to the bar, right next to the path, hooks her feet onto the bar and hangs upside down. The TK kids, fifth graders are all just staring and pointing and exclaiming. She starts swinging. Vigorously. Her head is shooting out into the trail that the kids are walking on. Since this is a public space there isn’t much I can do. There are still at least 250 more kids to come. So…. I just walk over and stand on the trail in front of where she is swinging and guide the school around her. The kids all stare and gawk and comment and I just stand there and smile. The teachers and parents appear to be either concerned or mildly amused. Sometimes a mix of both. Never could have predicted this.

And still she hangs. She’s there the entire time. Swinging. Near the end she said something about not realizing that I was actually serious about it being the whole school. She did seem to be slightly embarrassed. Slightly.

—The future—

One thing I do occasionally think about is how, when we die, the earth goes on. It adjusts. Things change. It isn’t always the same. Humans don’t really like change. We want it to be the same… or maybe just slightly more comfortable. That’s really all we, as a species, seem to care about. We’ll even sacrifice our own for comfort. Short term comfort.

When we die as individuals, it goes on. The whales, the sun, the trees, the kelp won’t care if we made a lot of money or even if we made a great scientific discovery. Our fellow humans might care for a few years… but even them… they will focus more on their comfort.

So self-centered, we are.

When we kill the earth as a species… like ants devouring all the land they live on… We won’t really kill it. We’ll just kill its ability to support us. It will go on. It may take a million years to recover, but it will go on and maybe, just maybe, what comes then will be magnificent.

My words of hope?

Live knowing that we as individuals and a species are ephemeral. Be kind. Be the best you can be to both your fellow humans and to the marvelous earth that supports you. You are lucky to be where you are, living such a spoiled life. Be good stewards so that it might continue just a little bit longer. If we’re good enough, maybe we’ll be around when the next big magnificent comes along.