This time it was a table of girls. I didn't draw a sports car; I didn't draw anything from a book, since I had sort of forgotten until after I walked into the lunch room that I had been threatening for a while, and that it was time to put my money where my mouth was. So I slipped into the kitchen, grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pencil, and then went and sat down with the girls.
I considered drawing one of the girls themselves, but since under even the best of circumstances, it can be difficult to get kids to hold still for you to draw them, I decided to draw one girl's lunch. I had hoped merely to be busy enough to pass unnoticed, but that wasn't what happened. They were completely fascinated. "Don't eat that!" one of them said to her friend. "She's drawing it!" I told her that she
should eat it-- I was a little horrified at the thought that someone would get less lunch because of my presence-- and I just drew as fast as I could.
And at the end of lunch, I asked them to please remember to clean up after themselves. One girl tried to argue that it was so small, why did it
matter if they left (for instance) just one plastic baggie behind. I raised my eyebrows and looked her in the eye and restated my point, and she quickly agreed.
NOBODY EVER TOLD ME THIS: hey, you are pretty good at drawing, and that means that some day you are going to work in a middle school and you will need kids to clean up after themselves at lunch, and this drawing ability is going to be your secret weapon for connecting with them, getting them to view you as an actual human being, and being willing to do the decent thing and clean up after themselves.
Life is so weird sometimes. (Yes, yes, I will try to get that lunch tray drawing posted soon...)
