Saving the Day; and using Lateness

It was a little pre-school.  Not important.  Two teachers, two classes.   Just a little local pre-school in a poor neighbourhood.

When I was young I went to a good school and we did a lot of class trips.   Class trips were important because it exposes kids to all sorts of things, from museums to planetariums to factories to court houses.   This school had no thought of a class trip.

I thought about it and called someone at the airport.   This was the ancient time before 9/11.  The airport did accommodate class trips.   I scheduled one that called a friend who had a minibus and he promised to carry the kids.

At the virtual last minute he dropped out.

Okay… what do I do?

I had a car and so, loaded it up with the teacher and the few children who were early, and we took off to the airport.  We arrived and got the tour.  The children were fascinated being on a plane.  It was the first time in their lives, and for some, the only time.

We had a great day and returned to the school in the afternoon.

I told the teacher that those who missed the trip should be told that we had to be at the airport on time and couldn’t wait.

As Jamaicans are characteristically late, the fact that the children had been told to be there at 7:30 am did not mean that the majority, even knowing it was going to be a class trip, the only one they would have, would be there early.

Those that were there before 7:30 am were stuffed into the car and we were gone by 7:31.   They missed it.  They could remember the penalty for lateness all their lives.

The children who had gotten the chance to sit on a plane would talk about it for weeks, months to come.  They learned that being early or on time was a benefit, and maybe learned not to be late.