spring fever...

this morning, as i was driving to go clean a girl's house, i got behind a laidlaw school bus. for those of you who do not know, laidlaw drives the city school children. i was trapped behind this bus for about 7 minutes on a one lane street at a stop light with no turn lane in rush hour traffic. why did i choose to fight this traffic, who knows. i actually like to go early to clean this girl's house so i can return home in time for zoe's little nap. back to the story about being behind the bus. there were a couple of children who had already been picked up, and as cool children do, decided to ride at the back of the bus. one child was standing between the back seat and the window/back of the bus by the emergency door. as unsafe as that spot may have been, this did not bother me nearly as much as the child that should have been in the seat across from him. at 8 am, this child was bouncing with energy as he jumped back and forth in the middle of the aisle, getting in the other child's face, holding on and swinging from the emergency door, etc. he was not in his seat. it took all i had (the teacher in me) to NOT put my car in park (holding up rush hour traffic even more) make my way to the door of the bus, ask permission to get on and put those children in their place by telling them the dangers of standing in the aisle, jumping and carrying and on while the bus was in motion, etc. what a distraction to the bus driver (obviously this was a driver who only cared about payday and not the safety of children)! i would have loved to taken away that child's recess, given him the bus rules to write 100 times, or something to that effect. however, i refrained, stayed in my car, and thought to myself, my child will a. never go to a city school (even though i did for 5 years as a child) and b. will never ride the bus (probably since she will ride with me to the school where i teach). that is besides the point though. it is no wonder why we hear about bus accidents all the time. with undisciplined drivers, accidents are bound to happen because of distractions from little johnny's jumping in the back of the bus. "back in the day" my aunt (who is a school bus driver in chattanooga) would have slammed on the brakes and tossed little johnny to the front of the bus. legally, she can no longer do that, but if she could, i bet he would think twice about acting out in the back again. ahhh! spring is definitely here, teachers, hold on to the reigns until may 25th!