When I drive up to Lacoochee Elementary School on my afternoons of volunteering in a second grade classroom, I never fail to feel those delicious small hands reaching out for me. "Miss Molly! Miss Molly!" Many of these children are known to me from years past and from the summer camp I have had at my house. I know them, and their parents. We are always happy to see each other.
Today, as on many days, I have tons of stuff needing to be delivered to Rachel's class. The kids are returning from lunch and they hold open the classroom door so I can bring in the large pumpkin, 25 pounds of clay, and a bag of apples and peanut butter for our snack.
Seth always runs to me for the first of many hugs, Xavier with the amazing dreadlocks hangs back, confident he has a big place in my heart. Sky is full of dimples and smiles. Daniel, who has some kind of language disability regards me with such an inviting expression. He knows that clay is his Thing and just for this afternoon, all will be right with the world. Today there is a new student, Cassie. She is a petite child with that pale country visage and haunted eyes of a child in turmoil. What I think of as the Mexican girl posse, those extremely cute and competent little girls with the bouncing pony tails, sit tight in their seats, just knowing that they are so good they'll get the very first pieces of fresh moist clay. Which of course they do.
After we hollow out and carve the pumpkin and install a flashlight inside and turn off the classroom lights to admire the effect, we get on to the clay project. This is the second time we have made and glazed clay. They are old hands and now know a few techniques. They get right to work. The challenge is to fashion some kind of reptile using all the clay they are issued. I give huge hunks to some kids and smaller amounts to the children who work on a smaller scale. I show them pictures from my Florida reptiles book and we talk about lizards, snakes and turtles.
By now, no one at all asks can they make a heart or a cross or an I love Mom piece. They are really into the reptiles and I see giant lizards and turtles and snakes happening. There is a lot of checking of the photographs in the reptile book. How do those alligator legs come out of the body? How can you make a snapping turtle have those things on it's shell? They know how to attach the smaller pieces so they won't fall off in the firing process. And they are thinking about what colors they will use in the glazes. At one point they sing to me a song about fireflies, something they are practicing for a forthcoming school musical. I could die at the sweetness of their voices. And all the while we are discussing reptiles and facts about them.
This is NOT FCAT prep. This is just life with kids (who are sponges) who take in everything, especially hands-on everything. And there is joy in this room that buzzes. Rachel, their teacher, is busy fashioning a salamander like the ones she caught as a child in a creek up north.
Everyone helps in the clean-up and then we are ready to end the day with a snack of peanut butter and apples. We talk about what is going to happen at the end of "Charlotte's Web" that we are reading to the kids. They know that I absolutely cannot read that last chapter, Rachel will have to do it. Seth sidles up to me and says, "You would cry, right?"
"Yeah, Seth. You're right." And I have promised them that at the end of the book we'll have a video afternoon to watch the movie and eat popcorn. Next week, for sure.
Earlier in the day I attended the usual monthly community organization meeting. I was struck with how many local initiatives have received grants for library services, community food, help for people needing computer services, sports, scouts, child centered stuff. These grants come from our state and national government, much of it from the Obama stimulus program. This money is our safety net for poor folks. When you are on the ground seeing this funding help folks who need it, it seems so mean spirited to vote for the tea party philosophy candidates who want to rein in this spending. Makes one wonder what they are thinking.. (or if they think at all)
There are many of us all across America who give our time and money to help the less fortunate. For example, I think of our school Officer Friendly who gives and gives of his time because he believes in kids now and in the future. The projects he promotes must be funded somehow, as do those of Mike Brittingham who runs the Girls and Boys Club. There are so many other projects in our communities all of which need state and federal grants to survive. Think of how impoverished we would all be if this went down the drain with Rick Scott.
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