Secret confession: I hate the pencil sharpener.
It's loud, my students think it's an excuse to get up and wander the room, and to be quite honest, I'd hide it or burn it if I could.
In all of my classrooms I have ALWAYS had this simple and straight-forward "no sharpening" policy. (No, I don't turn my children into contestants on Survivor where they have to fight for their lives to have the essential items needed to get their work done...) I just offer up the PENCIL HOSPITAL - a basket where old pencils go and students can grab a new sharp one, so that I can regulate that grinding noise. Brilliant, right?
However, the hospital is sometimes backed up. Sometimes the doctors are quite busy and they can't make it to see every patient and there is quite a wait to get a new writing utensil.
So this morning, I decided to grace the "waiting room" with my presence. While my students were getting ready for the day, I crawled down on the floor, pulled out the pencil sharpener, and FIXED every pencil in sight. I also happened to stumble upon a tupper-ware full of eraser caps and topped off each patient with a new hat.
Needless to say, this morning when we got out our handwriting packets, you would have thought these seven year olds had won the lottery. What pride they took in their practice! What smiles I saw on their faces! How carefully they cleaned up their tables! It was like Oprah's Favorite Things episode. "You get a car! You get a new pencil! YOU GET AN ERASER!" It felt like a TLC makeover. It felt like Christmas morning.
I am so impressed with how easy it is to brighten up a child's day. I wish happiness and joy was that simple for adults to find. And maybe it really is. Maybe we don't slow down enough to let it catch up. And maybe secretly that's why I keep teaching. So that I can learn how to find the silver lining, how to rejoice in the small details, and how to fill someone's bucket.
But let's not forget there are teachers and students everywhere who don't have the luxuries we do.
I often remind my students that the laptops, the amazing athletic facilities, the playground equipment, the barn, and lots of their other assumed luxuries do not exist on campuses all over the world.
What if we go even more basic than that.....what would my life be like without a pencil sharpener? without pencils? without lights, air conditioning/heat, walls, and carpeted floors? Those are all school supplies technically!
There are so many things that I often thank God for at work - health benefits, amazing coworkers, freedom and creativity to teach with, but today, more than anything else, I am thankful for the tiny cup of sharpened, eraser-topped pencils sitting on my desk. They make me smile, they remind me that little things can make a big difference, and help me remember that (not just homes but also) many SCHOOLS often have to go-without.
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