This Morning
There was a tampon on the floor of my classroom. It wasn’t used, but it was out of its wrapper, and this seemed to distress the students most greatly.
“Ew! That’s nasty, man!” One girl said loudly during their writing prompt. She raised her hand. “Can you come and pick this up?”
“I’m not going to pick it up if it’s gross,” I said, walking over to where she was. “Oh, for goodness sake.”
“What is it?” various students inquired from around the semi-darkened room.
“It’s a tampon,” I said, exasperatedly. “It’s not used, you guys. Get back to work.” I went over to the teacher’s desk and pulled out a rubber glove, mostly for show, and picked up the offending object, dumping it in the trash.
One of my best slacker students raised his hand. “I can’t concentrate on the questions now that this has happened.”
“Shock,” I said, smiling. “Get back to work.”
The students followed my directions and got back to answering their questions in silence, the mini-drama of first hour over.
It’s going to be a long week.
