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the amazement

20220915_143030

i went with Alyssia for the first time to see how to get to Emrie's School.   I am second on the Call List.   If contact can't be made with Alyssia,   there is me.     It was not as i imagined.   A great sprawling school.    Kindergartens are in front.   There is a kind of courtyard    with benches for waiting.   The entire street is filled with cars waiting to pick up kids.   Some people park and walk to the courtyard as we did.  and wait.   Something tells the Inside ,  like a bell?   what?   that it's time    and the door swings  open and they file out,  so orderly,    to come around   to stand against the fence of the courtyard till their   "person"   arrives,   

i could have been there for hours just watching it all unfold.    How parents or caregivers came,   how they Were,  how they looked and if i could have,  i would have struck up conversations with all of them…found out something.   And then….all the kids.  All the kids,   in the short moments,  there were so many individual STORIES of kids   I would have asked them things

been amazed at the Humanity of it all.     In the lead was the substitute teacher,  Ms. John Emrie says.   Like Ms. Johnson,  but not as much she says.   She leads.  look at her posture.  She leads.    Emrie is 3rd   in the line.  

it was Beauty Full…this simple thing of Kindergarten pick up  that i took so much for granted with my own kids,  with my grandkids,  but now…watching Emrie….a WHOLE OTHER THING   I am watching humanity  in  2022  California,  United States of America  Planet Earth.

 


20220915_185931   

found and stitched.   Top left.   Jude.   9 patch.

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18 responses to “the amazement”

  1. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    The 9 patch adds so much. Your fabrics work so well together and are so interesting to my eye.

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  2. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    PS I zoomed in and I wonder what Emrie was thinking…her in her new world and her own world at the same time. She looks like she’s soaring!

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  3. maria Avatar
    maria

    Emrie know the game’s , she’s dansing through it in her head she sing

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  4. jude Avatar
    jude

    so orderly, I don’t remember school like that.
    I remember the door opening and kids bursting forth like a cloud.
    things are different now…
    like nine here.

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  5. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    I spotted Emrie right away … as an elementary school librarian I taught 600-800 students each year so I became very good at names and recognizing children
    during those eight years I did “bus duty” at the end of each day … standing outside to monitor the bus loop for safety, sometimes called over by a bus driver or a teacher to deliver a request for help … the principal stood outside with a walkie talkie, directing each grade to be called out on the PA system (6 grades, an average of 4 classes per grade) … the teachers led their lines of students from one bus to the next (usually 10 to 12 buses) … many of the teachers would hug each student before they clambered on, checking their class rolls to be sure each child got on the right bus … hundreds of kids … now that I think about it, it’s amazing how organized it all was, how efficiently it all rolled out … and always, at the end, as we waved the buses away, I would think “they couldn’t pay me enough to be a bus driver” …

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  6. CatherinE Avatar
    CatherinE

    So good to see the world through your eyes, Grace. This brought me a memory of being in the “walker’s line” – we walked home from grade school and were required to be orderly until we got to the edge of the school lot. I love how Emrie is enjoying her walk. And the little nine-patch! So small but so impactful.

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  7. Faith Avatar
    Faith

    Yes, so orderly. When I was in school everyone walked–K-12. School buses were for special trips. The only order was that we were not allowed to run on the school property, which was barely more than the building. My son rode the school bus and preferred I didn’t pick him up, usually–until high school, where I just waited for him in the parking lot. I love seeing this thru your eyes.

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  8. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Great story Liz! Gave me a chuckle 🙂

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Jude had to be there. in this one…working together…
    but all the rest…it’s in question…how to go, not matching

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i don’t know either…and asking her is a challenge to her…almost an intrusion

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    how little i paid attention. To my kids days. To Alyssia and Jeff’s days even. it was someow just a Given. School.
    So different now…Emrie. For me. not just a Given. Not just assuming. realizing it can go so many ways. The DEEP of it all….how it sets the scene for all to come.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Liz…i love so so MUCH, this and anyother memory, sense, you might have…it adds so much to the Richness of watching her negotiate her Place in the Big World
    I so wish i could have spent Forever in yesterday

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    some how, Emrie/School and the nine patch are the same

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i am seeing it all for the First Time
    as an Old Nana. A Great Grandmother.
    vV
    but back to my own children…Vivid, some.

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  15. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    and so this … Don’s story from when he was an assistant principal at an elementary school … how he realized during the first fire drill of the year that they needed a more efficient way of accounting for children who were out of the classroom during fire drills … maybe walking down the hall to the library or the nurse … side note: when I coached children on their first day in my class (in a different school) “if you are ever in the hall during a fire drill, go out the nearest door and go to the nearest adult to tell them who you are” … and so, instead of having students find their way back to their classes from the outside of the building, Don set up a system where those teachers would raise their hands if they were missing a student or had found a student, so the administrators could quickly communicate with their walkie talkies to account for every single child … the fire drill was officially over once there were no more raised hands and every single teacher had an accounting of every single student … in due course, there came a time when several 5th grade boys decided to stay in the restroom during a fire drill, thinking it to be quite a hilarious prank … who were quickly found out
    to which I will append my own story … that I had made a rare rapid walk down to a teacher workroom during my barely 5 minutes between classes to use the private one-person restroom (usually I just waited until my 30 minute lunch) … as I came out, the school was eerily quiet … being very hearing impaired, I had not heard the fire alarm with the door closed and was the lone person left in the building …

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  16. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I was in the ladies room for a fire drill once too. Lights went off…it was DARK. Made a plan to never let That happen again! haha

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it had to be there…where everything Cloth began, Jude.
    i am still trying to break away from the works so well..
    get a little wild and ify

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    eeeeeeeeeeeee

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