The Daily Blue

The Daily Blue:

So, this year I had some quirky kids. I always do, but some of them were downright mysterious quirk. For example, I had one student who, every day (every DAY!) had part of a blue crayon that would be sitting unobtrusively behind or beside his desk.

It was always just PART of a crayon, usually a small part. It was unfailingly blue, no other color. It could either be swathed in its paper cocoon, or not. Most days, I asked him to throw it away, which means that somehow he threw away much more than a whole blue crayon. MUCH more, over the course of the year. I've never understood it.

Some days, I WOULDN'T ask him to throw it away out of mere respect for the blue crayon. Its blueness. Its tenacity.

This group of kids and their quirk were in some ways harder to say goodbye to than most.

Much of that is because the kids themselves weren't altogether sold on the idea of summer, not completely happy about it. And why should they be? We haven't had a school break without major existential angst since December 2019.

One student (who I honestly didn't think liked me all that much; I'm an acquired taste) said to me, "...but what I am I gonna do WITHOUT you?"

So, since school's been out and my encounters with the crayon Daily Blue, I've been working to shake my own teacher blues. I've already seen plenty of social media pics of kids on vacation; pools, meals out, general hijinks. But I sincerely hope these kids get better than what they've had. I hope this summer is a truly good and carefree school break for them.

My quirk kids deserve better than blue.