At the very top are boys from Eckstein's awesome 2023 Basketball Team sporting school colors. Below that are shirts from various years including one from when they were the roadrunners. They switched the mascot over to Eagles when I was there.
Stream poured down the school’s hill
filling up the full width of the sidewalk.
Each weekday they’d spill
this flood of student’s joyous talk.
Embellished in mascot spirit pride
good things about the place they attend
not something they felt they had to hide
while walking side by side with their friend.
Looking to revive memory of Junior High
so I rented from the video store Eighth Grade.
A main character that was also quite shy
little else was in common the deeper I wade.
Bo Burnham’s film was far too bleak
Most experiences back then are quite varied
and not just 90% awkward speak.
Why ignore all the awesomeness it carried?
Packs of kids fill the tables at noon
and in between nibbles and munches
today they’ll receive an added boon
as Skot compares two lunches.
“Contrast this meal made by his parent and
how unalike it is to hers. Is this a plus?
The range in how each guardian planned
but both still have the
same love for us.”
At the sound of the bell us kids ran off to lunch though there was plenty of time
just hours of increasing restless energy. Past where the ice cream truck would stop
during the slow days of Summer Music School, a time when life’s pressing concern
was which cartoon character ice cream to buy.
I visit the cafeteria today as jazz music pours out during a rummage sale
thinking of news reports “districts have no time for 20 minute lunch breaks.”
Flipping through the stacks of on sale books I come across a title, Peace Is Every Step,
and a few kids play the opening lines of Stairway to Heaven as I page through
the book with the dandelion cover. The author told of when his mom came home
after a long day shopping she always bought a giant cookie for him
and he took his time eating it, a good forty five minutes totally in the moment
rubbing his dog with his foot, what a priceless memory from a slice in life.
I’m glad Eckstein now teaches students to be present in their day to day lives.
This stage is much too important to let it all so mindlessly pass by.
The sign next to Mr. Adam’s clock had read:
“The time will pass but will you?”
This framing got some of the students to ask,
have I done the absolute minimum to pass?
Does it achieve the minimum so I can get out of this class?
What is the worst quality that I can possibly produce and avoid failing?
Mr. Adams replies, how exactly is it you pick your clothes?
Do you purchase outfits from a company with no knowledge how to stitch or
frequent restaurants with cooks that do not know what is edible?
You expect quality from others and yet set low standards for your own work.
On the day he taught us about supply and demand he pointed out that many kids
continue to complain about the choice of food they are given for lunch.
"Do you know what will change that?
You could stop giving the servers your money.
They will cater their to your preferences if their income is no longer incoming.”
A teacher’s influence would often go far beyond each class. At lunch Mr. Adams
sometimes bypassed the staff lounge, he knew that a good school experience
is about so much more then issuing assignments. It was a small gesture
seemed all but lost to time yet what I brought back from the stage wasn’t just
what I learned in each paper I wrote but what comes out all these years later in rhyme.
