Just how it is..

Feeling much more relaxed and energised after a brief lunch break, the girl responds to the school's call to get back to work by standing up with a stretch and a yawn and slowly making her way to the gym.

She would have preferred to sit a good while longer, absorbing the oxygen rich air under the tree, allowing her thoughts to settle, breathing and being with the source of energy within.

She had noticed before now how quickly the changes happen in the school environment. No time to delve deeply into anything or process the experiences effectively at all. Not like she's accustomed to, anyway.

Walking into the gym there's a teacher playing a bit of b-ball with a few of the boys, some of the other kids standing around chatting or sitting on the floor and a few others still wandering in.

She notices the boy who had approached her after the music class was amongst them, playing very confidently. He was oblivious to her, and this suited her fine.

There were a couple of girls nearby and one of them is watching her. 'Heard about you giving him the cold shoulder.. with a flick of her eyes at the boy.. he's pretty hot but he's the principal's son and full of himself. You made the right move.'

The teacher soon blows a few short notes on a whistle, pops the ball into the equipment room, quickly marks the roll without any perceivable reaction to there being a few students away, looks over the students briefly and says 'Right, let's get out of here, it's too nice a day to be cooped up inside!'

A few eyebrows raising, a few shoulders shrugging, everyone happily enough accompanied the teacher out into the open and down to the school oval, a circular track surrounded by bushland on three sides and adjacent to the football field.

Most of the children are standing around the teacher with an attitude of mild expectation, some are still in their little groups, chatting. 'At some point we're going to need to walk together and talk about what we'll be doing in gym this year, but first I'd like you all to just move around and do whatever you feel like doing.. some of the kids were looking at each other quizzically.. you might like to have a race, or a walk, do some exercises, whatever. Just move around is all!'

Some people you don't have to tell twice! Within seconds some of the boys have organised a race to the football goal and back and are off and running, shouting and laughing the while.

The girl looks around, sees a strange mist rising from the ground far over and in a cleared area off the edge of the oval and begins taking a few steps towards it. She notices that although some of the kids have walked off, most of the kids aren't doing anything, and a couple of them are looking at her with something undecipherable in their eyes, something akin to fear perhaps, anyway she shrugs and begins to run, fast as she can, feeling the rush of wind on her face and in her hair, the sheer joy of a quick burst of energy which is soon transformed into doing some cartwheels just for the fun of it and then skipping towards her destination.

As she leaves the oval onto the cleared area of long grass she sees it's not mist but smoke, rising from a huge pile of sawdust which is darkened and with grass growing all through it around the edges.

It reminds her of the hot steam coming off the compost heap at home, and she's wondering about digging it up a bit to see what's going on underneath to create the smoke.

Standing on the heap she is feeling the heat through the soles of her shoes when she notices the teacher is blowing the whistle louder and more urgently this time, and waving her to come back.

She sees the group is walking around the track, and the group that had the race is nearby, laying on the ground laughing and recovering. The girl who spoke to her in the gym is sitting near the principal's son and laughing with them, but he's ignoring her. So that's how that is..

Approaching the teacher, she's advised 'We don't go near there. Everyone, just stay on the track oval from now on please.'

They begin to walk around the oval and the teacher speaks to them of the circulatory system, breathing and how oxygen is supplied to the muscles, and also asking them to feel their body whilst walking, feel the muscles working, how the balance changes, how the breathing adjusts to the activity.

It's a beautiful walk, with birds calling from the trees and shrubs around the oval.

They get to where the sawdust pile is, and now some of the other children are interested in the smoke. 'It's on fire!' Some of them begin to walk off towards it and are called back by the teacher. 'We need to keep away from that sawdust, it's dangerous and needs removing. Time to get back to the gym now and talk about the course.'

The cleared area was a garden project that had been initiated the previous year but had lost momentum. The sawdust had been donated to provide pathways and for mulch and was now decomposing. The project has been under re-evaluation for almost a year, and may sometime be reopened, but meantime it's a matter of keeping the children away until a decision is made.

Back in the gym with the musty equipment room, the teacher outlines the course material which will involve some sports activities, some games, some gymnastics, athletics, dance and a little study into diet, fitness and the need to stay healthy, drug education, sex education, elements of movement, dance, road safety, swimming and water safety, communication, self esteem and personal development, etc, etc, etc. All this in a one and a half hour class a week! The girl asks whether it's necessary to study all this stuff and questions how they'll get through so much in such a short time. With a shrug and a friendly kind of scrunch of the face, the teacher says 'We all have to work to the curriculum. Most of it will be homework. It's just the way it is, darling.'

Walking over to the art room for the final class of the day, the girl is pondering how some elements of this school experience may be positive, but they seem to be overwhelmed by the machinery of the place. She doesn't really feel like she's in a creative space, and is wondering what kind of artwork she's going to do in this state of mind.