Permission Slip
Permission Slip
If I forget
and leave it
in my desk
where it gets smooshed
by my spelling book
and pushed
to the back
in a crumpled ball
I can’t see
when someone tells me
to look
and I never remember
to take it home
will I still
have to go?
My little guy is on a school trip. I miss him. I think he would have done this, if he’d thought it would have worked. My oldest would have done this too, when he was younger. Field trips can be scary. You have no idea what it’s going to be like when you get there. I guess that’s one reason you have to go.
© Elizabeth Steinglass, all rights reserved, 2015
Oh, I so understand this one. My son would refuse to attend birthday parties when he was little and in elem. school. The babysitter took him someplace once, to a friend’s in the next town and he sat on her lap with his head buried in her shoulder the entire time, luckily he has outgrown this. Almost too much for my taste. But that is life. Your poem is touching. Love them while you can, they grow and go too fast.
Our school takes kids on many trips, some individual, some group or whole class. I do have a few students who are nervous about the trips, even as much as they’ve traveled with family. Your poem & comment is full of truth, Liz.
For me this poem is all about the desk…I’ve been asked to go up to 2nd grade next year and right now all I can think about is how much I don’t now and didn’t love having a desk–I would have lost that permission slip too and have been desperate and unable to find it! I only want to teach 2nd if I can bring my K tables with me–everything on the surface where we can see it, thank you. : )
This poem is much more emotional that some of the others, huh?
Yes, this one’s more emotional. One of my goals is to do that a bit more. I completely understand you about the desks. Are they the ones with the gaping mouths? Do they even make the ones that opened (and fell on fingers) anymore? Our school has the sacks that go on the back of the chairs. Could you have those? But I suspect this is all a metaphor for not wanting to go on the trip, right?