What Sign Hangs on Your Door?

Christmas break in Kansas always offers something special. Some Christmas breaks have been white, with inches of snow piled up and the roads slushy and sloppy. Other years, break has been windy and cold, but dry. This year, a week after Jack Frost made a bold entry with lows around -10 and blowing snow, Kansas did what Kansas does, and flipped the script entirely. What does that mean? It means that highs in the 50s and sunshine made it really difficult to put off exercising over break. So, I hit the streets to try and combat the effects of my students' amazing generosity with food in the days leading up to break.

As I was walking my route through the streets of Hutchinson, I was faced with a decision as I came to an intersection. I looked right and saw one sign.

I then looked left and saw another sign.


The decision was obvious and easy, and I hung a sharp right. And then I started thinking. Walking on a pleasant Kansas afternoon lends itself to doing that.

I tend to see meaning in things. A metaphor in a line of poetry, a lyric in a song, colors in a setting description in a novel, the clothes a character in a TV show wears, the angle from which a scene is shot in a film. My son and daughter have inherited the habit, and I am happy about that; it causes them to think more deeply about what they read, hear, and see.  Sometimes, I think my school kids think I overdo it a little bit. I am an English teacher, so cut me some slack.

So, I started thinking about those signs. They were positioned so closely, on opposite sides of the same intersection, and yet, they are so different.

Which sign would I want someone to hang outside my classroom door? The choice, for me anyway, was simple. Obviously, I would want "Children at Play" adorning my classroom door, if I had to choose. "No Outlet" is just the opposite of what I would want a kid to think of when he or she walks into my room. That sounds like torture to me. No way to let anything out. No way to get out. A trap, a cage, a dead end. If a student feels that way about a classroom, or about school in general, why in the world would that kid make any effort, or see any purpose in being there?

Let's look a little closer at that "Children at Play" sign. That sign is there for the drivers. It is an announcement to look out, be careful, and pay attention. Kids are being kids. They are playing. Don't mess that up and turn something so perfectly child-like into something scary and tragic because you are in hurry or too preoccupied to notice what is going on in front of you, to see children doing the very thing that children are supposed to do.  The sign is there so the children can play and can feel comfortable enough to let themselves play. It might be tossing a ball, playing roller hockey, jumping a homemade bike ramp, or creating chalk masterpieces at the end of a driveway. It might be playing some new game that doesn't even have rules yet, and just develops as they play it. That's what kids do.

So, if I had to choose, I would want "Children at Play". I know that not everything we do in my classroom is going to be 'fun', but I want kids to feel comfortable in my classroom, comfortable enough to play a little. To skin an intellectual knee now and then because they feel they can take a chance and try something new, or stretch themselves in something they are good at without the fear of being blindsided by some thoughtlessness that barrels through. I would want the sign to remind me to pay attention, to see what is going on in front of me. Maybe to even take part in the game, or help prop up the ramp so they can catch a little more air.

The choice is obvious and easy.

So, as the new semester kicks off, what sign would you want hanging in your classroom?