This being the first delivery I had hoped everything would go smoothly, but of course there were some bumps in the road, and some lessons learned. Lesson one, I am not patient enough to be a teacher.
The story begins like this; I had been in touch with Karen, the Principal’s Secretary since before winter break. She was very friendly and excited about the idea I had shared with her. We scheduled the date and I had set up the delivery with Einstein’s Bagels catering service. The night before delivery I received notice that DCSD schools were on a delayed start due to the weather (a few inches of snow overnight and extremely cold temperatures). I emailed Karen that evening and confirmed the delivery with Einstein’s and everything was still going as planned.
I woke up and got to the school a bit earlier than scheduled and waited for the delivery in the parking lot. As I sat there I noticed that all the teachers were arriving very early just as they normally would even though school was on a 90 minute delay.
They all looked pretty exhausted, stressed, yet strong and eager – the look that only a teacher can possess, as though they’re driven by some unseen force. Some of them in two week drive vehicles, not exactly fit for the Colorado winters, they would park and collect their things. Now, if you’ve been around teachers much you know what ‘things’ I’m talking about. They usually involve an overfilled backpack or school bag, busting through the seams with papers, books, and supplies. Some, I noticed, even had boxes, apparently giving up on the “undersized for a teachers life” school bags.
One thing I want to do during this process is dispel the public of their misconceptions, and this little 30 minute experience I had should do just that. Many believe that a teacher’s workday starts when the bell rings and ends when the bell rings, that cannot be further from the truth. They are often there hours before school starts, and hours after it ends AND THEN they take a 50 pound backpack filled with students papers, planning books, grading books, etc. HOME! Why? Not because they’re training for a 14er (although this would be good training) but because they then take their work home with them. You see, it’s not just the students that have homework, oftentimes their teachers are up well into the night working on how to prepare their students for the next year academically and often social/emotionally.
As I watched the teachers one by one enter the building, I soon noticed that the delivery was running late. I attempted to contact the caterer with no success and as time ticked by I got impatient and soon grew upset. I told Karen what was going on and she very calmly told me no problem and not to worry, but that is not my nature. After what seemed like days, (about 30 minutes) I was finally contacted by the caterer and discovered that the store preparing the order did not realize it was for delivery, so they packed it up and got it out as soon as possible.
Long story short, the delivery came, Karen let us in and we dropped off 75 bagels and a ton of shmear in the teachers lounge.
I’ll end by saying that we live in a very strange time in which both restaurants and schools are dealing with staffing shortages. We must all learn more patience, and while I cannot be considered a very patient person, and probably never will, I am a work in progress. Luckily I’m merely an ‘insurance guy’ and sometimes my natural impatience can serve my clients well, but can you imagine the level of patience a teacher has to show every day?
Next up Cherokee Trail Elementary!
