It's not easy being a custodian of a large elementary school. Kids are really messy, and it seems they are not taught how to clean up after themselves. Every night I go in to vaccuum the classrooms and there is always so much debris on the floor from the day's activities, it has become very discouraging. Just when I thought there was not an appreciative, thoughtful kid left on this earth, something very nice happened. It changed my attitude towards the kids. As I was bending over to pick up yet another pencil from the floor before i ran the vacuum, a student came in the room. She had forgotten her homework and her dad brought her back to school to get it. When she saw what I had to do before I could vaccuumm, she went around picking up all the other things on the floor. Then she went into other classrooms and did hte same thing, and her dad, instead of yelling for her to hurry up, started helping her. I was so touched by their actions, they do care about the custodian. It renewed my faith in young people!
This post is part of the MAT@USC: Masters in Teaching Hope for the holidays event. Did you have an experience or witness something in 2009 which gave you hope for the future of American education? If so, please see this post for more information on how to share it.
