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If you think this is a make-over post, the kind where one takes the 'before' shot and then we see the miraculous transformation in the 'after' shot, it's not that. For one thing, there's no 'before' shot!
This summer I took our classroom plant home with me. It has been languishing in our room for almost 4 years. I took pity on it early on because it was almost dead from lack of water and care. Every so often, when I thought about it, in between caring for our students and getting them organized and situated, I watered it. That's it. I simply watered it when I could. That's pretty standard in our classroom---no one gets my undivided attention for more than a few minutes at a time, but they all get at least something.
I didn't want to come back in the fall to an almost dead plant once again. She didn't look so great even when we left for the summer--just a few sparse leaves hanging on for dear life, but not so bad that someone would throw her in the trash.
Sometime this past year I had begun to respect the valiant effort she has put up to stay alive after some pretty sorry neglect. So I asked Mr. Lucy, to whom the plant had originally been gifted from a student, if I could take it home for the summer. He was all for it, since caring for and nurturing plants isn't on his top priority list.
It has been 5 weeks since Trudy (the name I have bestowed upon her since she arrived here) has been on my kitchen counter. And wow, I wish I had taken a "before" photo. She has just thrived! All I did was put a bit more soil into the pot she was in and have been watering her every other day. Nothing more, but she is a different plant. I think people are going to be amazed.
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| Meet Trudy! |
Now, I've started to wonder about the actual humans in our room. Every year we get an assorted variety of students, at the very awkward stage between childhood and adolescence. Very awkward indeed. Then add onto that, various disabilities, home environments, parental situations and outside elements. Sometimes I wonder if being in our room is just barely enough to keep some of them hanging on to dear life. Now I'm wondering what would happen if I was able to bring one or two of them home with me for the summer. Would I see the kind of progress I am seeing with Trudy? Would they start developing new skills, new interests, gain greater self-esteem? It makes me wonder....I wish I could just ask someone for permission to take a couple of them home with me. Just for the summer. Just to keep them going until they can return in the fall....
