Principal Skinner: That's why I love elementary school, Edna. The children believe anything you tell them.

It was cirriculm night at My kids school.

I went into my son's grade 4 class and sat at his desk. The teacher began talking about a typical day in the life of my son. I could hardly fit on his chair. My son's name was written in permanent ink on a label and stuck to the desk. I remember the desks being alot bigger when I was in grade 4. At the front of the class sat a glass aquarium with a chrsalyd hanging by a thread. It was waiting to become a beautiful Monarch butterfly. I wondered if the teacher ever looked at the small faces sitting in the small chairs and imagined they were hanging by a thread, cocooned at their desks waiting to become beautiful adults.

The teacher pointed to a sign about "classroom rules" above the corner of the chalkboard. Her biggest rule was "Mutual Respect". She said that if that rule is followed then you really don't need the other rules. There were signs with small words with big meaning scattered above the chalkboard around the whole classroom. Words like "Honesty", "Integrity" , "Fairness" , and "Compassion". I wondered if these words could filter through the chrsalyd of the children's lives and leave a mark on their adult wings.

As I sit in my fabric covered box at work I try to imagine my chair being as small as my son's grade four seat. That the world around me is not so big as it feels and the merchants of greed aren't so powerful as I imagine them to be. My name tag is on a piece of paper slipped between two panes of plastic. Easily removeable and replaced much like the person sitting in their tiny chair. . In my grade four cubicle the words that would litter my walls would be "milestone", "tasks", "blame", and "quality".

I wonder about teaching my son the values of empathy, compassion, and faith. In my work world those values conflict with the single purpose of a large corporation --- greed.
Maybe I should teach my kid the values of greed, selfishness, and self preservation. At the least I could teach him how to effectively blame someone else for his own mistakes.

I could never understand how people can get so angry about helping people in life. It's like healthcare in the United States...what's so terrible about making sure somebody can get an operation or medicine when they need it? Why is the right for access to a lawyer valued above access to a doctor? I hope the kids of room 202 become beautiful adults, healers, or educators. I hope they can spread their wings and bring balance to the world. I 'll make sure my kids know the word empathy as more than a word above their blackboard!