Cleaning Out

Today marked the last day of the school year; a half day, it was spent cleaning out the classrooms, conducting a group activity to reflect upon what the events and memories of the year, and heading outside for some pickup games of football, soccer, and frisbee. The pace of the day was somewhat chaotic, with students scurrying around the halls, books being gathered, and untold quantities of paper being pulled form desks, bulletin boards, and lockers to be recycled. Only out on a local field, under a mild June sun, did I have some time to settle after a hurried morning of reducing classrooms to empty shells, lockers to vacancy, and even my own desk to a barren expanse of smooth wood and empty steel drawers.

Watching the boys as they tossed footballs, worked on their soccer moves, tweaked their frisbee-throwing technique, or lounged beneath towering shade trees, I recognized again their amazing energy, their unbounded potential, and what they've accomplished with those gifts this year. It's something that, for all the efforts that I and others have made in the classroom throughout this year to channel and guide, is a force that must also be allowed to flow freely, though not randomly. The physical spaces that we've cleaned out look odd, wanting to be inhabited, aspiring to be more than the bare wood and metal of desks, the blankness of unadorned walls, the neatly framed rectangles of bulletin boards bereft of signs of inspiration and achievement. The school will not remain in this state for long; we'll fill the gym this evening and later this week with students and their families to celebrate a year-end potluck, awards, and the graduation of our 8th grade class– all of them bound for some fine high schools. But as it becomes cleaned out, I can only hope and pray that, after a long and intense year of activity, the vibrant students take with them all the energy and talent that they have carried through our building since last July, moving with pride and purpose into a summer of joy and peace.