Sweet Potatoes and Suitcases

Today was our last community service day of the year, and the last "academic" field trip we will take with our 8th graders. We went to the Boston Food Project, a local organization that, among other things, owns farm land and offers the opportunity for youth from the city to volunteer/be employed growing produce. We planted what will apparently become over 7,000 pounds of sweet potatoes; from my perspective, it appeared to be about five handfuls of weeds, but I guess that's the miracle of agriculture.

It was a fun and relaxing day, and I was proud of my students for their enthusiastic devotion to their work and their positive attitudes in spite of being out in the hot sun, being absolutely covered in dirt (I still have some under my finger nails), fighting off bugs and burst irrigation pipes and, as always, the general fear of being perceived as "uncool." They really are some of my favorite people to spend time with.

...which made me recall community service day this time last year, when I was with this same group of kids as a new substitute teacher supervising trash pickup along the Charles River. One of my students looked at me at lunch today and said, "Hey, Ms. Stuntz, weren't you the one who volunteered with us on community service day last year?" I said yes and quickly changed the subject, hoping what he was not remembering was that, in addition to trash, I encouraged them to lug an "abandoned" suitcase to the dumpster, only to find that it contained the sole earthly possessions of a nearby homeless man. (He, needless to say, was not pleased. Neither were the kids.)

We have two weeks left in school, and I'm at the point where I'm fearing that I haven't taught them anything all year. It helps to have moments like these to reflect that at least I have grown during this year. While we all ended the day sleepy, sweaty, and sunburned, I did not at any point in the day encourage theft.

And, at the end of the day, that's what counts.