Maybe because I’m waiting to hear from a publisher about a book of mine. It’s a picture book a kid and his interaction with the school janitor (er, custodian – more on that in a second). The kid is afraid of Mr. Rumkowsky, but he has to find his hat, and Mr. Rumkowsky (the janitor – custodian) might have it.

Remember your janitor?

It’s a tongue in cheek joke, but it’s often said that the two people who run any school are the secretary and the janitor. They may not teach, but, in addition, hopefully, to the principal, they are the ones who have an overall view of what is going on in the school.

I know from my work as a visiting artist that if the janitor doesn’t feel like helping, I’m going to have a tough job. Where are the chairs? Can you sweep the floor? – someone spilled their cheese curls. The door is sticking. The radiator in Room 17 isn’t working. The food delivery truck can’t get to the loading dock because someone parked there. Any one of those things will mess up a school schedule, and thereby the learning process in a place that has to manipulate four hundred souls for eight hours.

Janitors are key. Actually – custodians. The folks who do all that necessary, often invisible, work would rather we call them custodians. One of them pointed out to me. “Janitors just clean, I take care of things. Don’t call me a janitor. I’m a custodian.”

And custodian is a nice thought – some one who has custody of a place. Someone who cares for it. Every school needs that.

Which is why I scratched my head when a friend of mine, a school librarian in a local elementary school, told me that they have no custodian. In a penny-wise, pound-foolish move, the system decided to out-source the “custodial services”. Now the hired service comes early in the morning, at lunch time, and late in the afternoon and does their work (exactly as contracted) and has no interaction with the rest of the school staff.

There is, I guess, still a little room where the supplies are kept. Children throw up during the school day, and waiting until 5 pm might be a little much. Remember? The smell makes everyone else throw up. There must be a place to get wood chips.

But if one little thing goes wrong, uh oh.

Life is about things going wrong. Like they say, “Man plans, the universe laughs”.

Like my friend’s overhead projector. The light bulb burnt out. It didn’t work and she needed it. There was no custodian to ask. She looked around the school. No one knew where the replacement bulbs were or how to fix it. Someone in the office told her if she needed a new overhead projector, she could send in a purchase order. Easier to get a new projector than a new bulb?

Her husband came to rescue. He looked at the make of the projector, Googled the company, got the diagram of the projector and ordered the $2 bulb, then replaced it himself.

I guess the spouses of school staff count as community. But it would be nice if the school system paid for that kind of thing.

Jeesh.

I’ve talked in earlier posts about schools being gift-giving communities, not businesses. It seems to me that a custodian, or caretaker, is an important part of that. At the school I work at regularly, the Paul Cuffee School, the custodian Henry greets all the kids in the morning. I’m pretty sure it’s not in his job description.

I’m also thinking that the contract custodial service companies have no interest in their employees talking to six year olds.

Oh for Pete’s sake.

Stories about custodians? I’d love to hear them. You can call them janitors, but don’t forget how important they are.

In storytelling workshops with teachers, I regularly ask them to tell a story about a teacher that had an influence on them. This leads to a discussion about what makes a good teacher, and opens up the door for them to talk about their work in a narrative way. It also emphasizes a notion I mentioned in an earlier blog – the “structure” of teaching is not a political one, but rather an unbroken line through centuries of teachers who influenced people who then became teachers themselves.

What comes out of those teacher stories in the exercise is always interesting. It is usually a story about some kindness offered, or some revealing act on the part of the teacher – something that shows them as a person.

I was doing this exercise last month for a school district in California. When we got back together I asked, “How many of your memories with those teachers had to do with the curriculum?” I looked around. No one spoke, no one raised their hand.

Finally, one of the older teachers said, “It never has anything to do with the curriculum.”

Everyone in the room nodded.

I’ve heard this response before and it makes my point in the workshop that it’s the culture of a classroom or a school that really encourages learning to take place. A kindness given to a student, or a story told, gives them courage to take a chance on learning something, knowing they’ll be supported. It may even encourage them to become a teacher. (Aaagh! Not that!) Without that culture, the best curriculum in the world is going to have problems. Some kids will learn under almost any conditions, but many others, especially ones at risk, are never going to get anywhere without those moments of kindness.

I have in my mind a thought about this. “Love is in between.” It’s not the part you notice, or the time curriculum developers think about. But kindness or openness really acts like mortar in a brick building. You have all these bricks you’re using to construct the building, but something needs to hold them together. We don’t notice the mortar, we notice the bricks. But it’s the mortar, the binding agent, in between the bricks tht helps the bricks to their job.

Okay enough metaphor. You get my point, I hope. The kindness, the stories, and the building of community seem like small things, and they certainly are in a formal evaluation of what was learned.

But no mortar, no building.

Hilltown Families and Iron Horse Entertainment Group have partnered up to offer a chance for two families to win a family 4-pack of tickets to see 2-time Grammy Award Winner Bill Harley at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. on Sunday, December 6th at 2pm. Deadline to enter to win is 12/02/09. Find out how to enter to win below.

HOW TO WIN

Your chance to win a family 4-pack of tickets to see Bill Harley at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA is as easy as 1-2-3 (4)! To win simply:

1. POST A COMMENT BELOW (one entry per family) and be sure to tell us your
2. FULL NAME and where you
3. LIVE (TOWN/STATE) PLEASE include your town and state to be eligible.
4. ACCURATE EMAIL (we never share your email address).
5. We’ll randomly draw a winner and will share the results below.

IT’S THAT SIMPLE! — Deadline is Wednesday, 12/02/09 @ 7pm (EST).

If you don’t win you should still go! Tickets for the No Nap Happy Hour concert series are available at the Northampton Box office, online at IHEG.com, or by calling 413-586-8686.
Hilltown Families and Iron Horse Entertainment Group have partnered up to offer a chance for two families to win a family 4-pack of tickets to see 2-time Grammy Award Winner Bill Harley at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. on Sunday, December 6th at 2pm. Deadline to enter to win is 12/02/09. Find out how to enter to win below.

HOW TO WIN

Your chance to win a family 4-pack of tickets to see Bill Harley at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA is as easy as 1-2-3 (4)! To win simply:

1. POST A COMMENT BELOW (one entry per family) and be sure to tell us your
2. FULL NAME and where you
3. LIVE (TOWN/STATE) PLEASE include your town and state to be eligible.
4. ACCURATE EMAIL (we never share your email address).
5. We’ll randomly draw a winner and will share the results below.

IT’S THAT SIMPLE! — Deadline is Wednesday, 12/02/09 @ 7pm (EST).

If you don’t win you should still go! Tickets for the No Nap Happy Hour concert series are available at the Northampton Box office, online at IHEG.com, or by calling 413-586-8686.
Visit link below for more details!


Click here for more details!

He was right. I would have loved him, and I did, eventually. And he was right – I never had seen anything like it. Four years later I was living in Cambridge when I saw Brother Blue for the first time, doing his street gig at Harvard Square. I knew it had to be the same person my friend described. Who else could it have been?

Blue (Hugh Morgan Hill) died last week after a very long, wonderful, and unique life. For those unfamiliar with Blue, you can find out more about him here - http://www.brotherblue.com.

My friend and mentor Benny Reehl told me when I started performing “Don’t be the best, be the only”. Blue was the living example of that advice – to say he was a storyteller is a feeble stab at putting someone in a box when there are no boxes, no words, that quite fit who he was. I kind of pride myself for living a slightly abnormal life – but compared to Blue, I’m just a little Establishment drone. With Ruth there to make sure he didn’t float away, he lived the bravest of lives, saying again and again what he thought was most important.

The book had promise. I sent it out and it got rejected. People said they did like it but not enough to publish it. (Hmm, maybe just being nice…) I rewrote it again. And again. I let it sit, neglected, for three or four years. I picked it up again and had friends read it and be as brutal as they could in their comments. I threw out characters, created new ones, rewrote the biographies and back stories of major characters. A couple of publishers nibbled.

Then, success, of a sort. Tim Wadham at the Maricopa County Library in Phoenix decided to publish it as a serial novel online. Simultaneously, Peachtree Publishers took it on.

The editors at Peachtree challenged every weak link in the plot. I had to rewrite again and again. Another year of rewrites. We changed the title from “Flyboy” to “The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher.”

Darius came out in 2006 – over ten years after I wrote the first draft. Fame and fortune? Not quite. Relief and a sense of accomplishment. Yes, those things.

It’s had a pretty good life. At shows, I regularly run into kids who say, “This is the best book I ever read.” Children are given to hyperbole, but hey, it works for me. A number of teachers have told me it’s their favorite read-aloud book to their classes.

From: IttyBittyLit

Here is someone working on the Bill Harley Video competition.

"This is a fun little project I threw together after hearing the song on the radio. Bill Harley has the mp3 available on his site for free download. Round River Records is running a competition for videos set to the music. Working on it has been an excellent public service announcement. The children were excited and the creative options were refreshing."



Click here for contest rules and regulations.