« Duct Tape Fixes Everything | Main | I'm So Hot... »
December 10, 2002
What time is recess?
Yesterday, I learned that a synonym is something you put on sticky buns.
I shadowed my friend Jeanne yesterday morning in her Fourth Grade class in Brooklyn. It was a nostalgic and enlightening at the same time. It's been nearly twenty years since I've been in a classroom like it. Everything seems smaller, much the same way McDonald's hamburgers used to seem so much larger.
It's certainly different than it was. Maybe some of it is comparing suburban Ottawa with inner city Brooklyn, but a classroom's a classroom, isn't it? Maybe not. Back in my day -- can you hear the elderly voice in your head? -- the kids seemed to behave better and we had one teacher. All through grade school, it was always one teacher and a roomful of kids. I was really surprised to see two other adults in the classroom in the morning. They were "paras." Parawhat I don't know, but I was shocked to see that they were needed so much.
The other thing I learned is that I wouldn't last ten minutes in a place like that.
Posted by KinCross at December 10, 2002 05:15 PM