One thing I kind of like about my job is that it has a bit of variety. We dance, we sing, we do push-ups, we talk about history, we talk science, we talk about families, we build things, we go places, and we play outside.
Once a week I have recess duty. It means I have to go outside with whistle, sexy fluorescent vest, and phone and watch over the children to make sure they’re not being run over or maiming one another or themselves.
Technically it’s an annoyance. There are papers to grade, bathrooms to be visited, coworkers to be gossiped, but I find a lot of tranquility in those 15 minutes of standing outside watching kids play. More people should do it.
They run around in little flocks, the students. I always think of the scene on Jurassic Park when they pull up on the grassy knoll and see their first dinosaurs in herds. There’s the soccer herd, the read a book by the wall herd, wall ball herd, basketball herd, flights of fancy out in the field herd. And when I say they’re running around in herds, it is running. They run everywhere. You’d think with all the complaining they do about math they wouldn’t come screaming across the playground at top speeds to get back to it, but they do. It’s like they’re still realizing that they’re alive and there’s so much life to experience and they just need to get to it as quickly as possible. What’s next? What’s next? Kickball against fourth graders? A potential fight at basketball, interesting injury by the trailers? A new science project? Another boring math paper? A new rule? It doesn’t matter what it is, just, What’s Next!
And then, in a happy little ego trip I put the whistle to my mouth and blow and watch a hundred little souls perk up and take notice and come hithering to my beckon. Wild, screaming little creatures, bouncing balls, swinging jackets, friends on piggyback, singing and laughing, joke-telling, story-sharing, wound-bearing beings ready for the next thing.