The sun hadn’t been up long when the first of the buses arrived. Most teachers hated bus duty. Within their classrooms, every teacher is a benevolent dictator; a king or queen. A demi-god. Outside, even on campus, our power is greatly diminished. We’re not in our space. We’re not in our environment. Not in our zone of control. We’re not acting, and we can only react and hope for the best from our students.
That’s the nicest way to put it. Teacher lounge talk went a little more like: “Darn kids keep dragging their feet.”, “It’s not hard! Just get to breakfast!”, “Why is bus 1017 always late?”, and “How am I supposed to get any planning done when I’m on monitor duty?”
Me? I loved it. My students were too young to walk across campus unaccompanied, and the Pre-K bus as well as the (sigh) Maturosis and Developmental Plateau bus were scheduled to be the last to arrive. Ergo, I was always on bus duty, at least until my students came in. All of my current students, anyways.
“Good Morning Eleanor. Hello Michael. Glad you’re back Mindy, hope you’re feeling better.”
“Good Morning Mr Gibson.”
“Hey, Mr G.”
“I am. Thank you, Mr Gibson.”
And so it went.
Going into my tenth year of teaching meant that I knew a good chunk of every kid in every grade. I’d taught a lot of these children their alphabet and first sight words. Heck, I’d potty trained a lot of them. For all their blather about maturity and adultness, Amazons in my experience tend to suck at potty training their children.
I’m showing my bias, but I suspect that deep down neither their children nor they are ready when it happens. That and the giants tend to spoil their children and make up in the “discipline” department with the Littles that they choose to “adopt”.
Typical Amazons.
Knowing the kids had its perks. Regardless of size, there was an almost mystical power that happened when you called someone out by their full name. And I knew a lot of names. “Phyllis Mary-Ann Finster! You know better than that!” The third grader’s jog slowed into more of a power walk. “That’s better, Phylls! Thank you!” I wasn’t going to begrudge a power walk.
No one gets into teaching for the money. They get into it because they want to make a difference in a stranger’s life. They want to pass on what they know and what they’ve learned to the next generation; the next several generations if they’re lucky.
I was no different. My first class of pre-schoolers were all late middle school and early high school age now. I was able to watch them grow up- watch all of my students grow up- and got to be a constant presence and example for them. I was proof that any preconception of Littles they might have had was wrong. I was just as much a teacher, just as much an authority figure, just as much an expert, and just as much an adult as any Amazon on campus. And I reminded them every day as they got older just by saying hello and reminding them not to run over each other as soon as they got off the bus.
Heh…kids.
After the initial bus and breakfast rush- the infamous bus 1017 included- Mrs Beouf’s and my buses pulled in. Tarnia looked to me. “You want I should get our guys off?”
I stroked my chin in thought. “Not quite,” I said. “Sosa says that most of our guys are making gains in their O.T. metrics, right?” Tarnia nodded. “Go on in,” I said. “Tell them to unbuckle their seatbelts. We’ve got a couple minutes to practice getting off the bus like big boys and girls.”
“Elmer?”
Dang. How did I forget about Elmer? “Help Elmer,” I told her, “but let him be first off. He can be our good example.” Amazon strength buckles were hard enough for Amazon strength kids that age. Elmer was my youngest this year AND a Tweener. He was also the only kid in my class that was completely potty trained. Yes, even for nap time.
“You got it, chief.” Tarnia said before climbing up the stairs to get things underway.
Meanwhile, Mrs Beouf was busy unloading her “children”. Mentally, I kicked myself. In taking the time to teach my own students real life independence, I was forcing myself to be exposed to some very unpleasant reminders. Life just wasn’t fair.