rough draft

I am observing Mrs. Webb’s fourth grade class. The eerie morning bell just rang and students are filing into the room with a surprising excitement that high school students definitely lack. I realize that this joy the students share is not the only thing that is unique to elementary school. The walls are brightly decorated with attention-grabbing posters and the students’ artwork. The cubby holes start filling up with book bags and lunchboxes as more of the curious children enter their classroom.
“Back to school” time must be a more joyful experience for primary school teachers than for intermediate instructors. The carpet in the back of the room with smaller rugs waits patiently for students to bring a book during story time. Nearby, the hand washing station is ready to fight all of the germs that can spread around this bacteria-infused room. On the back wall hangs the homework board where the teacher neatly writes the objectives for the week in the typical teacher handwriting. The board contains a total of three assignments. Those were the days.
The fourth graders have a morning procedure they are responsible to do every day. There are numbered toothpicks they must move to specify whether they are packing or buying, and the numbers correspond to the labeled makeshift lockers. The children then proceed to get out their notebooks and work on class work that is on the board. This is intriguing to me. I think it would be virtually impossible to get high school students to do bookwork before the school days officially begins.
On the overhead projector is the morning work that they kids are happily working on. There is confusion written all over their nine year old faces as they try to comprehend the Goliath-sized words “subject and predicate”. Once Mrs. Webb begins to explain what these terms mean, her pupils listen intently; treating every word like it has great significance. She could say absolutely anything and these kids would believe it.
One aspect of elementary school that I had forgotten was tattling. As a senior, there are some unwritten rules including, “never tell on anyone else”. This rule does not apply in the fourth grade. This little boy in the back row enjoys picking on the girl in front of him. I didn’t imagine he would do something like this with me sitting here observing him, but now that I think about it, that could be why. He throws small pieces of eraser at the petite red-head girl.
There are many aspects of elementary school that I had forgotten until now. Some things are missed, but overall, the high school setting is slightly more mature and sophisticated. While grade school was much easier, more fun, and care-free, high school has taught me more life lessons. It’s going to be interesting to see these kids once they get to high school!