Albus is the only lunch room helper in what sounds like a grade two classroom (the info I get from him isn't always 100% accurate). At the beginning of the year, he was one of three lunch room helpers in the classroom, all of whom had volunteered for the job, but apparently "lunchroom helper" is a job with some attrition, because he's now the only one. Lunchroom helpers supervise during two "nutrition breaks" as lunch is now called, and as I understand it there are no teachers in the classroom during that time. Just Albus. And a bunch of kids. Eating. And probably talking and laughing and potentially fooling around.
He says there have been no problems. He just has to stand up to eat his lunch (he didn't qualify that as a problem).
So I said, um, what would you do if someone started choking?
And he shrugged and said with an optimistic uplift in his voice, "Hope for the best?"
Very proactive of you, Albus. Very proactive. (For the record, I suggested that in addition to hoping for the best, he head for the hallway and shout for a teacher.) But, really, I'm super-proud of him for volunteering to help out, and for sticking with it; and also for volunteering to torture parents walking their children home from school by being a school crossing guard, too. (Parents waiting for the 10-year-old kid in a safety pinny to tell them it's safe to cross know exactly what I'm talking about...)
**Photo from our summer holiday, but of course. Doesn't he look beautiful, and quite possibly, responsible?Labels: kids, school
