In plain sight

unintended observations

TARANTULA!

I was walking down the Split Rock trail in Joshua tree, admiring the rocks and plants and clear blue sky when I heard footsteps and tiny voices ahead of me. A moment later a stream of 5 kids appeared, running down the trail. I scooted to the side to let them pass. They were chattering, high energy bouncing down the trail. The leader was a young boy, face covered with dirt, body. He stopped short, feet from me and pointed at the ground, “TARANTULA!” He then moved on, walking for a moment then running again. The other kids stopped a moment too and moved on, “Like the one we caught yesterday”. Nearly already gone by the time I look down and see the lovely creature hanging out next to the trail on a rock less than a foot from the trail edge. I didn’t even notice… and I tend to notice things… and this young group noticed it at full speed, while chattering and running down a curvy trail. Kids are cool.

Pensive? Pendant? Pen…?

This week in class my 2nd graders are typing up little prayer cards (business card size) that they will be able to take with them or give away as they choose. They can put whatever they want on the cards; prayers, sayings, deep thoughts, whatever. Since we’re at a Catholic school many of them like to do prayers. Some make up their own but most use one of the many prayers that they like to memorize in the Catholic faith. As they work, I roll around in my chair and look over their shoulders to check their work and see if they have any problems. One boy had several lines written and one word near the end popped out at me… ‘penis’ clearly spelled out near the end. I stop. I breathe. I think, okay, don’t over react and I read the sentence to myself and for the life of me I can’t figure it out. “You know, this is a word, but I don’t think it’s the one you mean. What are you trying to say here?” “pehnas”. Huh? “Can you say that again?” “pehnas”, a little louder... and I’m still trying to sort it out. “pensive? pendant? no they don’t make sense. “Say it again in a sentence please.” “To do pehnas, to sin no more”. “Penance?” “yeah”. Oh my golly.

And I look around to make sure no other students are paying too close attention. Phew. Survived.

2 minutes later I’m checking another student’s work and there it is again. Penis for penance is a thing, I guess. I’m going to have to proofread these carefully before they go home.

Where did they go?

My school got the whole week of Thanksgiving off. A great thing. The Friday before we were off there was some drama. I feel like lack of respect. Societal acceptance of lack of respect. Makes me grumpy.

A local high school had an “open house” as they attempt to recruit kids to their school. Cool. Fine. Whatever. But all day? An open invitation? Really? Over half of our 8th graders were gone. Many have no intent of going to the school. I think they just wanted an excuse to get out of class. And it’s just a sales job. It’s not a real walk through or tagalong. It’s an elevator speech. They’re being marketed to and the students are probably even less able to deal with this kind of sales pressure than adults. Makes me sad. On top of that only a few of them have checked in with me after their absence to see what they missed. Makes me grumpy. Unfortunately they’re going to wake up when they see their grades. Hopefully they’ll do something about it on their own without complaining to their parents first.

The previous class a student was missing that I’d seen earlier in the day. I ask the class where she went. (mistake). “H knows”. H looks at me, “she’s with the counselor”. Oh man, that’s supposed to be on the down low. Dang. But yeah, no one told me. If you don’t know what’s happening it’s hard to keep it on the down low.

The next class is after lunch and less than half my 7th graders show up. “WHAT!” oh I’m mad. And I know they’re somewhere. 2 had talked to me earlier about what we were doing or how they could make up work from being absent. I asked the students, “oh they’re at the church or something”. I glare… try not to take it out on the students in the room. I stand at my door looking to see if they’re coming. The science teacher, with the other section of 7th, is storming across the courtyard to the office. She’s mad. Another teacher walks by and I ask him. Ms. H has them in the church. “What?” He shrugs. The science teacher is outside the office with one of the staff. I can feel the mad across the distance. I learned later that the office didn’t know where they were. I check the calendar. Nothing. ergghhhh. Mad. Mad mad. Lessons. Timelines destroyed. Ergh.

35 minutes later they show up. I get a minimal amount of work done with them. I ask, “Did you know this was going to happen?” A universal “no”. Ergh. And in a steady and slow sentence I say, “I’m going to have to talk to someone about this”... and three of them said, “good! Go Mr. Swanson!”.

After school I had cooled down a bit but knew I had to go talk to the teacher in charge. I let her know that it’s a problem to just take students without letting anyone know. We have lesson plans, I only get them once a week, it’s a security issue, please don’t do it again. Her immediate response is defensive and she tries to blame someone else. . . I’m sad. Please, just take responsibility. And finally she says “I’ll send an apology to everyone.” Okay. Good. Thank you. She does.

After Thanksgiving she is absent for a few days. Things sort of settle down. I’m still grumpy. Taking kids without asking, no notice… lack of respect for me, and others, as teachers. Grrr.

She comes back and first thing in the morning as I’m walking to my room she tracks me down. Helps me with some stuff I’m carrying. “Don’t be mad at me” gives me a shoulder hug. Tells me how they’re going to do it differently going forward. And she thanks me. Profusely. She had no idea she’d stepped on any toes and if I had not said anything to her that Friday afternoon she would not have sent an apology to everyone, people would have stayed mad and had it fester… it would have gotten worse and she would not have changed her plans for the next Friday. And another thank you and a big, squeeze the life out of me, hug and another thank you.

Several other teachers and the office were upset but no one had said anything to her. That makes me a bit grumpy too. Complaining is one thing… I vented a bit before going to see her. Helped me bring it down a notch… but not doing anything about it? Not giving a person a chance to correct their mistake? That’s a problem that will only lead to bigger problems.

Sigh. How much anger in this world is just due to festering… and really… totally unnecessary? Be kind in all things. If we are affronted, take a moment, breathe and talk to them. Maybe it was on purpose (and then you’ll know for sure) but maybe it was unintentional and if you never said anything you would never know and fester fester fester… unnecessary tension in the air.

Hugs. A change in perspective can provide the light you need.