Or so I\u2019ve heard. Friday was my last day of subbing in this small town. The regular teacher is back, smiling and restored to health, and I helped her move some of the classroom furnishings into the positions that she prefers to have them. Later she worried that she had offended me, and I did my best to reassure her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course I\u2019m sad. I know <\/em>I don\u2019t have the energy to do this all year, especially since the leaves are falling now, that winter that Stephen St. Vincent Benet might have referred to as a \u201cscalping knife at the throat\u201d is on its way, and trips out of town are difficult to arrange, but still. . .eleven kids, two teachers, a cook\/admin assistant who loves the kids, and custodian\/maintenance dude who loves the building. Add to that the fact that the unused classrooms are individual archaeological digs, except that most of the treasures thus revealed have immediate practical use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I struggled with a student behavioral issue or two. Even though I used all the latest research, and remembered how people throughout the years have from time to time gushed about my talent with children and my creativity, I can\u2019t help but wonder. Is it something along the line of what God said to Job that one time, that there is just something about me that pisses people off? And what in the world do I make of it when a child pauses in a tantrum and carefully, with great attention to detail, makes me a paper figurine of his favorite video game character? And then resumes said tantrum?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Side note to those who worry about me: don\u2019t fret. I had a wonderful time here, gained new skills and knowledge, made new friends, and experienced a broad range of micro-successes. And whenever I got stressed out I jumped on the four-wheeler after school and went zipping through mud puddles until I felt better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyhoo. Time to turn that teacher-workroom-turned-treasure-trove over to somebody else, and get packed. That plane will be here some time in the next two days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *****************************<\/p>\n\n\n\n For your further edification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n