On Monday, January 5, the Upper Elementary classroom at Woodland Montessori School walked to Woodside Park for lunch.  On our arrival we could see that vandals had defaced a great deal of the playground equipment.  It is not rare for there to be some minor graffiti at Woodside but it is not generally this widespread nor is it generally this vulgar.  The kids expressed their thoughts ranging from disappointment to sadness to discomfort.  They ate their lunches and then headed to the play structure.  After some time chasing each other around the structure and zooming down the slides, I started to hear more comments about how sad it was that someone had been so disrespectful and unkind.  One of the children said, “I think we could clean it up.”  Another child, standing very close, agreed.

That sentence changed the pace, direction and lessons for the rest of the day.  They gathered others who would help.  This ended up being everyone. Some of us went back to school to get sponges and Soft Soap.  All the students found a spot and started to clean.  They were elated!  For 40 minutes those kids scrubbed, rinsed, scraped and slid (plastic is slippery with water and soap on it!) until they had removed about 90% of the graffiti.  They found that the paint on the porous surfaces didn’t come off as easily.  While there were many vulgar and inappropriate things, the two that disturbed them the most were a racial slur and a rude reference to “Fat Kids”.  It was interesting to me that the words that they thought would hurt a specific human or group of humans were more offensive to them than simply the “bad” words. 

As they started to gather up their supplies and give a final rinse,  I noticed a large truck pulling up to the curb with a large trailer-like attachment with the letters "GRS" on the side.  As realization set in of what GRS stood for, I began to wonder if we had done the right thing.  Were we about to get in trouble?  Had someone reported our graffiti-cleaning jag?  Why in the world was the Graffiti Removal Service there?  Two men got out of the truck approached while looking over my shoulder for the atrocious, copious graffiti that I am sure had been reported to them.  They saw next to nothing.

Brothers Paul and Brent, of Graffiti Removal Services, were very surprised as I told them our story.  They were grateful that we had taken before and after pictures.  (We thought the police might want to see what was written so we took before pictures.  We thought you might want to see so we took after pictures.)  They explained to the children how they are paid by the City of Woodland to come out two days a week and remove graffiti.  They also explained how they remove graffiti.  It took a quick swipe of a paintbrush in solution for the experts to remove the paint from the porous surfaces.

While it would have been easy for the kids to be disappointed in the fact that they worked hard for 40 minutes when someone was on their way to do the same work easily, they were very excited to hear what Paul had to say.   One student thanked Paul and Brent for cleaning things up when we didn’t even know they came.  Another raised his hand and told them how much he appreciated them.  Another complimented them on how quickly they worked since we didn’t often see graffiti.  I imagine that Paul and Brent were surprised that these kids would not only compliment and appreciate them but also that they expressed it express it aloud and with no prompting.

So, when you wonder why you pay to have your child in our school, or when you wonder what they are up to all day, rest assured that they are being given the freedom and support to become the special human beings they were intended to be.  They are seeing wrongs in the world, and rather than notice the problems and complain or ignore, they are becoming citizens who notice a wrong and do something about it.  They did not stand around and wonder if they should do anything, or how they might do it or whether or not they had time or if it would be worth it.. They noticed a wrong and they did something about it.  They did this from an internal sense of justice.  They did not do it because they were guilted into it or because social norms or an adult told them that they should.  They did it because they cared and because they have power in their environment and world. 

Wendy Tye
Oak Classroom Teacher

www.WoodlandMontessoriSchool.com