Back to School

Ross and I have started back to school. Our denial had to end at some point, right? His biology and chemistry class have 10 - 12 students. He's taking Advanced English, and since they don't offer Spanish, French. They offer sheep tending, but he declined. I was sad about that! For those of you who know Corvallis High's auditorium, picture the contrast (for those of you who don't know it, picture a school built in 2006 for 1300 students): school assemblies at Bellingen High (600 students, school built in . . . 1948??) are held in the gymnasium with students sitting on the floor. Ross said it brought him back to Adams days! He catches a bus at 8:00 a.m. (contrast to 6:55 a.m. in Corvallis)for the 20 minute ride up to the hills nearby. The bus is an air-conditioned coach like the ones that take you up to the casinos! Did I mention how handsome he looks in his uniform?? Grey shorts and a white polo. Go on!

My experience is equally as surreal. Darling children all in blue checkered uniforms, blue polos, and sun hats. "No hat, no play," is the saying at school. So each one sports a wide-brimmed hat or ball cap. They get their drinks at the bubbler, play Tips at recess (or Tag as we know it) and erase their pencil mistakes with a rubber. The children will ask me with the sweetest child Australian accent, "Mrs. Mollahan, may I go to my bag and get my rubbah?" They have a "fruit break" at 10:00 a.m. to eat a piece of fresh fruit from home. Don't mind if I do!

As I walk through the little quad, an Ibis will be strutting by. I'm met by a Blue Tongue Lizard on the steps when I come up most mornings. As long as I know it's not a snake, I'm happy to see him/her, tongue and all. Galahs fly about on the field/playground. It's just amazing. Rules, schedules, curriculum, and issues are all the same! Just the acronyms are changed. There is a high Aboriginal population at the school which translates to our Hispanic population in schools mixed with social/community tensions of our Native American population. It's fascinating to hear the perspectives and the possible solutions. It's a huge quandry, at least.

This morning before leaving the house, as I calmed the butterflies again, I said to Pat, "I wonder what new thing and new phrase I'll learn today!"