bad

"Everyone in K-2 is bad!" announced Blake with all the authority and deep wisdom of a kindergartner. The usual chaos of the post-recess transition had an extra layer of unresolved drama. Apparently a boy from the kindergarten class next door had bitten a student in K-1 prompting Blake's blanket statement regarding the badness of the entirety of the other kindergarten class. The remark was overheard by the K-2 teacher.

"Don't say 'everyone in K-2 is bad'," she admonished. "It's not true!"

"Yeah," cracked-wise the smartass inside my brain, "Only some of them are. har har."

I am but a lowly (but dedicated) instructional aide, but even when I had the lofty title of Director of After School Activities, I wasn't one for public castigation and grandiose apologies. However, kinder-biters and gauntlet statements against an entire class must be addressed. As children from both classes began to drift into their respective classrooms and the teachers continued to unravel the Bite Heard 'Round the World, I realized that if both teachers were in K-1, who was watching the kids in K-2?

I corralled the kids onto the rug and was in the middle of giving instructions for an impending art project when the K-2 teacher returned with the slanderer and had him apologize to her class for his harsh words. The biter, the bitee, and the impugner all had their "clips" changed (thus, no sticker at the end of the day), and life continued.

I began to wonder...if a five year old child's knee-jerk reaction to a playground skirmish is to announce that an entire group of kids are "bad", what hope is there for the rest of mankind? Republicans and Democrats. Christians and Muslims. Russians and Americans. Each group convinced the other is godless, morally bankrupt, or just plain stupid. Them and Us. They are all bad over there. Ah, the easy explanation. They are bad.

My mind jumped to earlier that morning when I was explaining segregation to a fourth grader. The lesson was based on the civil rights movement in the 1950's so I mentioned the separate drinking fountains, public bathrooms, and schools. To bring up an example closer to home, I pointed out 5th Grade Park, the lunch area earmarked for fifth graders only. The word segregation connotes enforced separation by race, but in the strictest definition of the word, a separate area restricted to only those of a certain grade, is segregation. I remember entering middle school and hearing about the punishments a sixth or seventh grader might suffer if they accidentally or intentionally stepped foot in 8th Grade Park. What is it about human nature that makes us want to separate, to enclose, and exclude?

Before the pandemic, once a week I spent my lunchtime at the picnic benches in a shady area of the school playground. Tuesdays were drawing and coloring days and anyone was welcome to participate during their lunch-recess. In my handcart I toted colored pencils, magic markers, coloring pages, and plenty of blank paper. The kids swarmed the tables and surrounding blacktop to create and color. Kids of all grades, ages, and sexes sat shoulder-to-shoulder and shared the pink, plastic bins of drawing implements as they chit-chatted, traded art tips, and complimented each other's work. Kids who might not have anyone to play with, had an instant group and activity to occupy what can be a long recess when one hasn't many close friends.

After a year of closed schools and remote instruction, we returned but naturally were discouraged against large gatherings and close contact. Drawing and Coloring Tuesdays went on an indefinite hiatus. More and more kids have been inquiring when it will return and I look forward to that day. Yes, recess is a time for running, playing, and expending physical energy, but the dearth of art in the classroom makes the use of creative expression not only welcomed, but needed.

As we are slowly able to relax Covid protocols and return to "normal", I envision the students of K-1 and K-2 intermingling at the picnic tables, drawing and coloring their little hearts out. Asking for and receiving the fluorescent-yellow marker from the person across the table will surely illustrate that while they may come from different classrooms, that alone does not make them "bad".