The Most Disagreeable Job T.I. Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School, Kyoto, Japan

When I was in the fourth grade, I went to public school in Fort Lee, New Jersey. On the bulletin board near the main office, there was a job offer for students in the fourth grade or older. The paper caught my eye immediately. It was the chance to become a "safety patrol person" in our school. "Safety Patrol" was a job to take care of kids third grade or younger during lunch period. This job was a dream of mine since I was in the second grade. When I was in the second grade, there was a sixth-grade safety patrol during my lunch period. They played games with us, and I had a very good time. Therefore I wanted to become a safety patrol person like they were. I immediately got a good friend of mine to become my partner and become a safety patrol person with me. So my job started. We got the orange caps and sashes that indicated that we were safety patrol people. On the bulletin board, it showed which class we had to take care and the rules we had to follow. The class I was in charge of was S-1. I did not know what class it was, but I heard that it was a "special" class. At first I did not recognize what "special" meant. I thought it meant that it was very well-behaved class. When the bell rang which meant lunch time, we hurried down to the class we were in charge of. I was very excited at that time. I finally became what I wished to become. However, the peaceful image I had imagined did not come to reality. When I arrived at the class, the teacher of the class was waiting for us there. Before we entered, the teacher warned us about the class. She said that the students of her class were children who could not keep up with regular classes. They were mentally ill kids. I was shocked to hear that. I had to take care of kids I did not see regularly. So the fifty minutes of difficult time had begun. I did not know what I had to do. The kids ignored us and did not talk to us at all. Some kids started crying and some started to throw books and stuffed animals, while the others started fighting. It was hysterical. We could not get it straightened out with only the two of us. A week went by and soon a month went by. Nothing changed from the beginning. However, from one incident, we were able to become closer to them than before. It was when one of the girls in the class got hurt from playing tag in the class. She stumbled over a pile of books and injured her hands and knees. She started crying intensely. We hurried down to the nurse's office with her and got her injuries treated. From this incident, the students in the class trusted us and soon began talking with us. A year went by so fast and our job was over. We had gone through a tough year. We did not get money or any reward for doing this job since it was a volunteer job, but I think we have gotten a special present from them: to be more mature.

Child Research Net would like to thank the Doshisha International Junior/Senior High School and Takanori Ikeguchi, student and author, for permitting reproduction of this article on the CRN web site.

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