Today, my teaching partner mentioned that one of the girls I journal with turned in her journal with something nasty on it. She was at the back table and I was picking up something off the printer. She spoke a little longer but I had tuned her out, my forehead against the whiteboard, and gagged. Yes, I gagged. Not once, but multiple times. Deep convulsive, non-productive heaves. Hypersensitive gag reflex. You can Google it and learn that for many people, it occurs during dental work, or with certain smells. For me, it is a visual trigger. I don’t even have to see it. A description, a memory, a retell (like this) is often enough.
And that brings me to the title of today’s slice. Maybe they talk about “icky things at school” with primary teachers, but I wasn’t given a heads-up in my teacher training program. I bet they still only give the “wear gloves with body fluids” talk. I bet they don;t describe the inconvenient times and places those icky things can surprise you. They don’t tell you that homework comes in with “stuff” on it sometimes. Or that you have to throw out moldy library books that sat in someone’s wet backpack for weeks. Or that vegetables in a plastic bag will, eventually, liquefy. They don’t warn condiment haters like me that kids will come back from lunch with ketchup on their face, their shirt…..
The funny thing is that I can do blood. Just not any other nasty stuff.
The offending journal was bagged and tossed into the trash.
Ms. B, you deserve a medal.
booksandbassets 