Lunches at School
We made chicken curry for the kids (their favorite) Sunday night, and brought it to school for them on Monday and Tuesday.
Gunilla was sick, so I was the only one there today… sat with both girls while they were eating, as we’d given them regular silverware and didn’t want it disappearing. Lynessa told me to let her mother know that the chicken curry was yummy… she took big bites, gobbling it down. Didnt’ finish it (as usual), but oh well. Lynnaea finished all of hers both days.
Was quite interesting to observe the kids in their “natural environment”. The kids don’t pay much attention to you, and you pick up little hints of gossip as they babble and gesture and point. Of course, Gunilla is a lot more socialable than I am, so the kids behave differently when she’s there… being the passive observer is not her style. :)
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I really enjoy being at the school during lunchtime… the school is full of brightly shining, happy faces, full of energy and life. It really is a vision of America’s future, black brown and white all mixed together with not even a hint of dissension (how the hell do we adults manage to screw that up?).
If you watch carefully, of course, you’ll see of course that the society isn’t totally immune to the maladies of the outside world… on Monday, the only kids kicking a ball against the handball backboards were boys (although there was a very self confident girl going one on one with a boy on the basketball court), and you see other hints of gender and racial segregation… white kids tend to have other white kids as friends, more often than not (which may be a reaction to being a minority), etc.
I noticed that Journey keeps on wearing the same shirt (mostly because it has the year 1982 on it, and I keep thinking, damn, I was her age when that shirt was made)… I asked her why she’s always wearing it. Answer makes sense: she got it for Christmas in Ireland. :)
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I sat in the cafeteria after Lynessa’s group had left (the big kids and little kids eat separately)… hadn’t done that before. Was quite heartwarming to watch the kids help clean up; they are so animated and clearly have such a zest for life, flinging themselves wholeheartedly into what they’re doing… all little girls (I guess that’s not too unexpected). Flinging themselves dramatically across the tables as they wiped them down, waving their arms in the air and gesturing wildly, carrying out boxes by wearing them around their waists and over their heads, negotiating who takes out the recycling, etc. I doubt they save the custodian much actual work… I suspect it is more a good citizenship training opportunity than anything else (although I saw that the volunteers got otter pops at the end of cleaning up… that was cute too: they got the custodian to very animatedly open them up by breaking them in half).
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Had a chat with the custodian about the school closure/budget situation (he’d seen me speak before the school board); with the principal about the Dual Language Immersion Program presentation we both attended last night (and the budget situation); with Lynnaea’s teacher about her glasses (we’ve been encouraging her to wear them at school when she’s reading, apparently she’s been feeling a little bit embarassed) - he said she wore them today and he was complementary; with Lynnaea’s music teacher (Gunilla can pronounce his name, but I can), who says she has an extraordinary talent and needs backup from the home to realize it (which is why we bought her a violin to practice her). Lots of “networking” goes on at lunchtime, I guess. :)
As I’ve said before, everyone from the principal on down, is clearly totally committed to the kids, enjoys working with them, and has the knack for being able to engage and interact with them effectively. B40 is a vibrant, functioning community, and it baffles me that the board wants to close it down. Sad. Hopefully it won’t be necessary.
