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Restoring My Faith In the World.
Apr. 29th, 2004 12:07 pmAfter far too many consecutive days of frustration, depression, and general stress and misery, I had absolutely no desire to crawl out of bed this morning to do a classroom visit. Usually class visits are one of my favorite things, but I was tired, my snake was shedding, and I had far too many visions of catastrophe and complications.
But I did it anyway - I had made a promise to a favorite client that I would visit her school and appear on the fourth-grade TV show, and I didn't want to let her or the kids down. And it has entirely reminded me of why I love my job, my life, and my species.
First of all, nothing in the world is cuter than a bunch of nine-year-olds very importantly running their own news show. They reported on the can drive the next-door class had run, a classmate who came back from vacation in Italy, a new student teacher.... the third grade class did a song-and-dance skit. Their "feature story" was a picture book. The little girl interviewing me even made sure to take me aside beforehand and teach me the special dance everyone was supposed to do with the closing theme song, and I scored many, many points for being the first Special Guest to actually do the dance with the rest of the class.
The interview was short and sweet, and the snake stole the show as usual. Even rowdy kids will calm down for the chance to pet and hold a Real Live Critter. Of course, nothing would do but that I had to go and visit every second and third grade class in the school, after they saw the show - amazingly, *all* of the kids were good. They raised their hands, they said please and thank you, they lined up politely to pet the snake, they even asked intelligent and interesting questions.
I don't think I ever want to actually have kids, but this reminded me of how much I like just spending time with them, as people. They're still enthusiastic, and open, and eager to share and learn. It's a much-needed reminder of what's important to me, and how I want to approach the world....
But I did it anyway - I had made a promise to a favorite client that I would visit her school and appear on the fourth-grade TV show, and I didn't want to let her or the kids down. And it has entirely reminded me of why I love my job, my life, and my species.
First of all, nothing in the world is cuter than a bunch of nine-year-olds very importantly running their own news show. They reported on the can drive the next-door class had run, a classmate who came back from vacation in Italy, a new student teacher.... the third grade class did a song-and-dance skit. Their "feature story" was a picture book. The little girl interviewing me even made sure to take me aside beforehand and teach me the special dance everyone was supposed to do with the closing theme song, and I scored many, many points for being the first Special Guest to actually do the dance with the rest of the class.
The interview was short and sweet, and the snake stole the show as usual. Even rowdy kids will calm down for the chance to pet and hold a Real Live Critter. Of course, nothing would do but that I had to go and visit every second and third grade class in the school, after they saw the show - amazingly, *all* of the kids were good. They raised their hands, they said please and thank you, they lined up politely to pet the snake, they even asked intelligent and interesting questions.
I don't think I ever want to actually have kids, but this reminded me of how much I like just spending time with them, as people. They're still enthusiastic, and open, and eager to share and learn. It's a much-needed reminder of what's important to me, and how I want to approach the world....
