Monday, March 30, 2020

Space and Time

The facilities director met us at the front door of school this morning in disposable gloves and a mask. He apologized for having us sign in and politely requested that we limit our time in the building to no more than 15 minutes.

Heidi needed some materials from her own classroom further down the hall, and so we agreed to meet in mine when she was done.

I was only there to pick up my plants; they could have survived the 4 weeks away that had been announced when we left on March 13, but now that school was canceled for the rest of the year? Well.

When I opened the door to my classroom the sun was shining brightly enough that I didn't bother with the lights. It smelled like a school in there, a mixture of books and chalk and pencil shavings and crayons, maybe. It was a smell I recognized, but not one I expected. My room used to be odorless to me, like the water to a fish.

It didn't take long to pack up the assortment of succulents, cacti, philodendron, orchids, [un]lucky bamboo, and my Douglas Fir and Joshua Tree that I had grown from seed, and so I stood in the unlit room and looked around at the unfamiliar familiar. I have been teaching in that very classroom since 1994, longer than I've lived anywhere in my life, but today I felt my connection to that space fray just a bit.

And then Heidi was at my door, and we headed out into the deserted, but brilliant, spring day beyond.

4 comments:

  1. Such a weird experience-- you did a great job of capturing the emotion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful concrete details. I especially appreciate your new unfamiliarity with the familiar smells of school. The fraying connection is the most worrisome of all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Funny that it still smells like chalk - why is that when so many of us have whiteboards now. That paragraph focused on the smells is so perfect. And, like the water to a fish - Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loved the "unfamiliar familiar". So glad you retrieved your plants. I wonder when we will go back?

    ReplyDelete