An Old Spice Moment

I have absolutely NO idea why this commercial stayed with me all these years. The sailor coming in to port, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder, getting ready to meet his woman after months at sea, and wearing.......Old Spice. I think the commercial had this catchy whistling background music. It is a visual that I still remember, maybe because I was imagining Uncle Preston and Uncle Clifton, my mom's two brothers, coming home after their WWII South Pacific days and splashing on the Spice before heading down to Rotan's local honky tonk. I don't even know if Rotan, Texas, had a honky tonk. It was just fun for me to think about them two-stepping with the girls after defending their country.

Last week, that smell of Old Spice came wafting into my classroom, which is adjacent to the jr. high locker area. Years of monitoring locker areas have taught me two valuable lessons: (1) boys are basically smelly creatures until they reach the 6th Grade and (2) boys have no concept of how much is too much cologne. More is better to them. Wish they felt the same way about the number of books they take home.

Young Flint had given one of his classmates an Old Spice demonstration. He had not one but two Old Spice products--a deodorant spray and a cologne. I'm guessing he was expecting to break out into an extra sweat during track practice or something. But he decided to give good buddy Merik a demonstration of the potency of the products in the secret confines of his locker. If anyone walked though that locker room between 11:15-noon, they might have thought the entire U.S. Navy was docked.

I love this age. Eleven and twelve-year-olds are socially posturing for their peers' respect and for their own self-respect and trying desperately to "grow up." As their teacher, I feed into that. I want them to grow up, too--turn in homework without being reminded, sit in seats and quit getting up every five seconds to blow noses or kick the shins of the kid next to them. I want them to pay attention to my efforts to show them the world when, up to this point in their lives, all that has really mattered are Gail America and Texas.

But as with the Old Spice locker moment, Sixth Graders still go off in their own mind-boggling world. During a lecture today about Asoka, the great Mauryan warrior/Buddhist convert one student decided it was time to share with me the fact that she likes pumpkin pie while another asked if I had seen "Zombieland." I want to pull out my hair. I want to get within two inches of their sweet little faces and say, "And how does that relate to 300 B.C.?" Instead, I just look at them in disbelief.....and then just a bit of humorous awe. They are children. They are precious children who somehow thought I needed to know something important, too--and pumpkin pie and Zombieland seem to be right up there with Asoka's elephant warriors.

And even after these classic pre-adolescent moments, a part of me wants them to stay right here at this age as long as they can. Sixth Graders are antsy and restless, but they are also eager and easily impressed. They are noisy and talkative; they are also curious and concerned. In their eyes, I see mischief. In their hearts, I sense an incredible urge to please. Best of all, they are not yet jaded to nor poisoned by what often is perceived as a cynical world in our adult years.

Lucky me to have twenty-one students who still want to learn--and smell good at the same time.