Dad on Duty Blog #42 ******* The connection between educator, who becomes caretaker, and student can be profound. A little boy had something happen today that was embarrassing to him, but harmless. Nurse Shields gets involved, and gets the situation fixed. But hes still very embarrassed and kinda withdraws. The Boss herself jumps in and helps. He seems better. It mattered to him that The Boss helped him, directly. But still he seems shaken. At the end of the day, as hes headed out to his ride, Nurse Shields is watching for him. She steps out of her office and intercepts him in the hall, and has a real tete-a-tete. Holding him close, she literally touches her head to his. Talking to him as if there was no one else in the world, while 600 people swirl around them. For several minutes, she connects to him in their own little world, of her making. She coaches and guides and reassures him. And for those few minutes he really felt like there was no else in her world but him. And then she lets him go, and he walks away, his head held a little higher. Mary turns to the next customer, who needs a new bandaid. And I admire it, in silence and in awe. ********* Our building is brand new, just two years old. Yet stuff is breaking. Today, we found that a bulletin board in the 3rd grade hall had fallen off the wall. These boards are big; about 8 long each. The maintenance guys are on the way to put it back up. When they get there myself and the other DOD go up to help. The maint guys, correctly, look beyond the immediate problem to make sure theres not a tip of the iceberg thing going on. And lo and behold....there is. All the boards are warping to some extent, and will likely need to be reattached. As they tell us that, there is this moment like in Jaws where they first get a glimpse of the full size of the shark. We look down the hallway, and realize there are a hundred feet of boards.....just on this hallway. And there are 7 hallways like this. Oh boy. Now what? The maint guys reattach the fallen board, mutter about later, and head out. The Boss stops them before they escape. What are we going to do about the other boards? Um....nothing till they fall down. She stares quietly at them for a bit. Really? Have you noticed there are small people here? Awkward silence. Yes maam. What are we going to do? Fix them, maam. Let me go talk to my boss. Better answer, thank you. ******** I had another Dad working with me today. He has two kids at our school. At the end of the day, as they were walking out, his daughter, a first grader, commented loudly Im so lucky my Dad can be a Watchdog! Im pretty sure, after that comment, hes gonna do it again. ********* The other Dad working today is a highly trained engineer, with a Masters degree. One of our biggest assignments today was folding and cutting papers for the art teacher. Now thats about the right level of technical task given my education, but did seem a little below his capabilities. However, he dove in with great enthusiasm and, as we finished, commented that it was quite satisfying. Way better than going to meetings. Later I taped Bs shaped like butterflies onto copy paper so kids could color inside the B while learning about the letter (get it....B for butterfly? Its a little subtle. Ill wait for you to catch up). The fast, dangerous life of an elementary school volunteer. Id do it everyday if I could. ********** Theres one little boy Ive worked with quite a bit. He had a rough year last year, but is doing really well this year. Its great to see. Today, we helped with a recognition of his class. Afterwards, his class was heading out for art. As he prepared to line up, I asked him how he was doing. Beaming, he said great! Then he hugged and latched onto me while we lined up. I held his hand while we walked down the hall. A little girl in his class asked is that your Dad? He replied nope!, and gave me an extra squeeze. I thought: right now, I am. Just for a few minutes.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 15:37:45 +0000
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