At the first faculty meeting of the year, a sign-up sheet was passed around for folks to choose their required extra duties for the year. By the time the sheet got to me there was only one job left -- Thursday lunch duty. My heart sank -- loud, raucous adolescents at their adolescent best!
I‘ve grown to dread my weekly stint in the high-school cafeteria. I can manage a classroom well enough, but amid the lunchtime fries and frenetic conversations, I hold little sway. What’s left but to put my woes to song?
Well, I’m coming from my classroom, not enthusiastically,
For I’m going down to the lunchroom; it’s that time again you see.
Oh, lunch duty, yes, you can cry for me,
‘Cause I came here for the teaching, not a supervisory.
Well, the logic goes, that if you teach, you should be able to
Supervise three hundred children while they sip and slurp and chew.
Oh, lunch duty, it’s not the thing for me,
Give me jury duty any day, but not this misery.
Well, they’re raucous and they talk so loud. They’re not exactly neat.
There is food a-flyin’ everywhere when they sit down to eat.
Oh, lunch duty, it’s not what I’d call fun.
Well, the minutes pass so slowly, I can’t wait until it’s done.
Well, a high school couple got too tight, a-kissing on the cheek,
Had to tell them that it wasn’t right; I know that made their week.
Oh, lunch duty, I dread it every day.
Well, they say it’s in my contract and for no additional pay.
Well, I walk around and tell the kids to clean up all their stuff.
Well, they clean a bit and leave the rest; they think they’ve done enough.
Oh, lunch duty, it’s not the place for me.
I just want to teach my classes, not a supervisory.
About the Lyricist
Eric Baylin has been a teacher for 39 years, working with a variety of age levels in both public and
private schools in New York and North Carolina. He currently works at Packer
Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York, a K-12 independent school established in 1854. In
addition to teaching art and photography to middle- and high-school students, Eric coordinates a program
of collaborative faculty study groups in Packer's professional development program.
We’re back, we’re back,
We’re back here where we all belong.
We’re back, we’re back,
It seems like we were never gone.
How to keep the ease of summertime inside us,
That’s the challenge we all face.
Better not to dwell on how our last year fried us,
Find some quiet time and space.
We’re back, we’re back,
We’re back here where we all belong.
We’re back, we’re back,
It seems like we were never gone.
Fill the year with pedagogical adventures,
Find the moments ripe to seize.
Keep the flame of learning burning, never quench your
Thirst for possibilities.
We’re back, we’re back,
We’re back here where we all belong.
We’re back, we’re back,
It seems like we were never gone.
This is my 39th year
in teaching. Ouch! It's hard to see that in print. Several years ago, I had one of those great "aha"
moments that has given new life to my role as an educator.
I've always been interested in working to change schools in ways that enhance and support learning,
but I'd gotten to a point in my career when I saw that all my serious, effortful striving played
only a minimal role in change. The "aha" came when I realized that I could, at least, change my
state of mind by laughing at the very things that bugged me most. OK, maybe not everything.
But at least the little everyday stuff that nags at me and drags me down.
That thought became fodder for songs about school and teaching, which I started writing as a way
of helping myself (and my colleagues) survive the year with an intact sense of humor.
I still work hard to change the things that stand in the way of student (and adult) success in
schools. But now I wonder -- seriously -- if laughter itself isn't one of the soundest pedagogies,
a "best practice" that can help us re-tune our schools and shift the culture to one that genuinely
embraces wellbeing and lightness of heart as sound supports for learning.
I wouldn't mind working at a school whose mission statement included, after those ever-familiar
phrases, "lifelong learning" and "supportive, yet challenging environment," the words
And this is a school where we love to laugh!
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Eric Baylin's
This is my 39th year
in teaching. Ouch! It's hard to see that in print. Several years ago, I had one of those great "aha"
moments that has given new life to my role as an educator.
