Exploring

It was another day at the continuation high school. I had a group of kids for a brief time (15 minutes), and our job was to fill out a couple surveys (senior activities, yearbook superlatives, etc.). It was the afternoon, so the majority of the group had done the survey in the morning.

And they were ready to play.

"Now I can check out what's over in this corner."

A student started picking through a pile of stuff that was behind a bookcase in the corner. Because that's the sort of thing students like to do when their teacher is out. And when I warned him away, he informed me that, "She lets us".

Yeah, right. If she let you, then you wouldn't find it so fascinating when she's not in the room.

The boy found a tape player. As in, a cassette tape player.

There was a tape in it. It was an audio book for The House on Mango Street.

"What happens if I press 'record'?"

I freaked out. (Or rather, I freaked out as much as I do in the presence of high school kids. That is to say, I under reacted.)

"Stop playing with that. I don't want you accidentally recording over something."

Only after I said that did I notice that the player wasn't plugged in.

Which the boy found hilarious.

So much for under reacting.