Just a Little Time

Planet Grade 2

It was Monday. "Are you sure I'm allowed to wear jeans and trainers to school?" asked Dick pulling his ball cap down a little further. Steve had stuck with what he knew. Dick was wearing jeans, a light blue t-shirt, a red nylon jacket and trainers. He was still wearing his old ball cap. He had a plain timeless black backpack and an old school original metal Superman lunch box that was probably a collectors item.

"I don't pull in enough money to send you to private school Sport," answered Steve. "Public schools are non-uniformed now."

"Look there's a black boy and an east Indian girl. Do they go here too?" Dick sounded intrigued rather than racially close minded, Steve nodded.

Steve hadn't thought about that one because the war had temporarily broken down some of the racial barriers and anyone willing to help was acknowledged as help, sort of, but post war he had heard that racial tensions had worsened through next few decades. There were huge numbers of displaced peoples created by the war and lingering; us and them, allies versus enemies, issues and suspicions.

"Schools integrated a long time ago. Race issues are still there but things are better. It's not going to be a problem for you is it?" asked Steve.

"I was raised in a circus. There was no multicultural mixing pot more accepting in the 40's and 50's. The bearded lady was my godmother Steve. She wasn't white. She was Albanian. She made this really awesome tasting sausage called kebaba. Hey, did you know she had three poodles. One was named Pickles and there was Dandelion and Sneezer. Sneezer had allergies but he was really good at dancing on his hind legs. Pickles wore the ruffle with the polka dots..."

"Okay Dick. Um actually I think it would be better to stick to your full name Richard at school."

Dick just shrugged. He was busy staring at the kid's shoes. "Those shoes lit up Steve! How come almost none of the shoes have laces. Hey, look at that little girls shoes. They have sequins. Mom made me a performance outfit with sequins once. Only time I ever heard her swear, sewing all those fiddly things on. Whoa that's a lot of sequins. Look, look, look Steve every girl in that group has backpacks covered in sequins and they change colour too. How do they do that?"

Steve ran his fingers through his hair feeling rather stressed. Was Dick really ready for this? Half of the morning had been spent explaining sunscreen which was absolutely essential as Richard's skin was thin, hairless, short on melatonin and would be for a while. The rest of the morning spent talking in awe about bagged milk and the changes in milk delivery.

Dick stared at the sign on the front door of the school. A no peanuts sign? Why? What? Steve dragged him through the front doors before he had time to read the sign properly.

The first day did not go well.

When the principle brought Richard to Mr. Aropne second grade class Dick was confused. It didn't look like second grade. It looked like a kindergarten. There was a huge carpet area and group tables rather than desks. Every corner of the room was packed with brightly coloured toys, blocks, stuffed animals and a small mountain of carelessly treated books. Plastic bins were in every corner of the room. There wasn't even a chalkboard just a wall of shiny white boards. The teacher had assorted bright paint pens? There were still brushes that looked kind of like chalk board brushes. Presumably the brushes must clean the paint pen off the white boards?

"..so much plastic," muttered Dick astonished. The classroom was a wall of noise. Some people were sitting at tables, others were sprawled on the floor, one was hiding in a tent? What in the world was a miniature circus tent doing in a classroom? (This is a literal description of the grade 2 classroom I was last in.)