They still feel like cats to me. Sometimes they are chill cats that saunter from one side of the room to the other, paying you no attention. Other times they hiss and arch their backs at what or whom, you are not sure. Dogs respond. You whistle, they come. You call their name, they look at you. Cats, nah! They pay no mind to their name or whistle. The only thing that seems to catch their attention is the rattling of the food bowl. Kindergarteners are cats. And some teachers are like the pied piper, entrancing kindergarteners with their music, their singing and finger play. That is not me. I am an upper grade teacher at heart and struggle mightily to understand and teach these kindergarten cats. 

So today, when I subbed, I felt like the opposite of the pied piper.

Today reminded me of a school field day from a few years back. The whole school gathered for a day of games in rotations. The tradition was to mix the kids so each group that rotated through you, was a mix of kindergarteners through 5th graders. The older kids could help with the younger kids. That was the thinking. For some reason, we mixed it up that year, and kept the same grade together. Most of the rotations of students to our parachute station went fine. Up, down, round and round. We made it through a few parachute games before the whistle’s rotation signaled the new group was on their way. It was the green group, the kindergarteners. They wandered, some dropping to the ground, others chasing each other, some crying. My 5th grade colleague and I tried to get their attention, to give them directions, to corral them. But like cats, they ignored us. I looked at my colleague in exasperation. The whistle, call and response, clap signals, nothing was working. Her eyes widened in exasperation too.Then my eyes focused behind her, far behind her to another group of kids and teachers. It was the kindergarten teachers. They were actually pointing and laughing at us. They saw the cats, their kindergarten cats and they saw us, the non-pied pipers and laughed at our failings. “Just wait till our eye-rolling, snarky 5th graders get to you”, I mouthed back at them. Let’s see who’s the pied piper then. 

But today, I managed to get a few cats on task, reading a book, writing a story while the rest roamed restless or lazed about as cats do.