The new girl

At school today there was a ‘new girl’. I remember back in primary school, calling the new kid in class that tag- ‘the new girl’ or ‘the new boy’. Alice is 5 years old and is really good at drawing according to Jessie, her new friend. I needed to take down her name for the class roll, I wrote her first name, then asked her what her last name was. She shrugged her shoulders shyly “I don’t know” she replied quietly. It was so funny how the other kids scrambled around trying to find out what her last name was seeing if it was on any of her books. Then Renee cried out “Here it is!”. On a worn sticker label stuck on a Winnie the Pooh drink bottle, was her full name written in black marker.

I wonder how that would go down if every time someone asked what your last name was, you replied “I don’t know”. I wonder if they would hurry about trying to find something you owned that might happen to have your last name on it.

I like to ask the kids questions after they’ve finished drawing and are finishing off their work with colour. Today I asked in what year everyone was born. The response was “February 1999” or “August 1998” or a couple of blank stares. I thought how wonderful that was- that that was only 7 or 8 years ago now. It seemed a great privilege to me having heard those responses, that I was now sitting there teaching individuals who weren’t even on the earth when I was 17, how to draw an animal that was a cross between a lion and a tiger (a ‘Liger’ just so you know).