Please go home!

Today my coteacher and I witnessed an incredible phenomenon.  It was five minutes to 3 this Friday afternoon, and we had forgotten to let our students know at ten to 3pm that it was time to clean up.  I asked the students to please clean up.  Three minutes later, the students were still working.  I asked the students to clean up again, but half-heartedly, sort of amazed that they were not moving from their work.  Then after 3pm, our students were still working – many of them engrossed in their work, not wanting to leave.  I told them “Please, I know you don’t want to go home, but I do!  I love you all, but please, go home!”  At this point they all looked at me and laughed, and then I laughed.

As an adult, I envision people counting down the minutes until they get to go home on a Friday afternoon.  It’s Friday! Thank God it’s Friday!  But our students were happy to stay at school, and probably would have stayed longer had we not said anything and had their parents not been waiting downstairs in the hallway to take them home.