52 Cleanup and Talie: Another Synchronicity Tale

One of the earliest initiatives of a new principal was an anti-clutter campaign. Granted teachers are notorious hoarders, but somehow the vast energy invested in this effort paled in comparison to many long time successful initiatives that were eliminated, like student of the month and attendance award certificates. These awards were matched with hard wrought gift coupons from local merchants. Another empty and gratuitous initiative was an essay contest where kids had to write about what made our school great. However, any submission that mentioned the previous principal and the popular programs he put in place were mysteriously eliminated from the competition. One day while dumpster diving among some of the anti-clutter treasures thrown out on the sidewalk (foamboard one of my chief sought materials) I found an old file cabinet marked S-T with crumbling student record cards, some of them going back to the early 1900's-truly an archivists wet, in this case dry, dream. More to come