While I realize with great confidence that people of all ages will - by virtue of the most basic human desire to succeed - live up to the expectations placed before them, no matter the great height of the challenge, this does not apply in the scenario described above. If you say 'it does too' (probably in a high pitched, whiny, argumentative voice), I say: "You're so adorable."
Our campus has a pint-sized staff of capable and hard working custodians, but even they are human. Insert a misstep of some type or, a defective, indoor fire sprinkler (which would have no relation to whether our superhuman custodians are indeed human, after all). Couple that misstep or defective sprinkler with a remaining 50 minutes of school day on a Thursday afternoon and you have, my friends, the equivalent of herding cats who have just sniffed their first taste of cat-nip after being sequestered all day with 999 other cats inside a school campus.
Flash forward, and aforementioned 1000 middle school students with their frazzled teachers are moved, en masse**, to the campus football field. Mind you, none of us, even the adults, knew precisely what's precipitated (PUNTASTIC) this evacuation, and we knew not of a scheduled fire drill. Roughly 30 minutes later - insert your most far fetched mental image of emotional torture - we discover the cause: busted sprinkler + intense campus flooding + fire department summons = evacuation and (this is the piece de resistance) a restriction on students returning to the building to collect their lives*** that same afternoon, until the muck had been sucked from the hallways, a process not expected to conclude until the evening or
overnight hours. ***I meant to say, backpacks, cell phones, money (perhaps), house keys (likely in many cases), Chapstick, love letters, hate letters, and - gasp, say it ain't so - school supplies. It was a wise decision made with student safety at the forefront. But, was it merely my imagination, or was this the facial expression on student faces when they were notified of their afternoon fate? I think not. I've seen enough horror movies to recognize danger when presented before me:
Before you're alarmed, our students do not wear loin cloths. It's not considered uniform dress on our campus. But this does remind me that I've yet to read or see Lord of the Flies.
Hilarious! That was an afternoon I'd prefer never to relive. (I had kids pleading with me to throw their backpacks out the window of my classroom.) ;) (oh- en masse comes from the French term, so you're correct using the 'e'.)
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike. I belatedly thought I could have done the same with my classroom window luxury, but then realized that a larger herd of backpack crazed children would have descended upon that corner of the building, thereby villainizing myself with my neighbor colleagues.
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