Defiant? Or Creative Solution?

One day last year during lunch recess, a couple of girls asked me if there was anywhere they could go that was quiet, private and out of the sun. I suggested a couple of places, but they didn't like any of them.

"We'll figure something out," they said as they left.

I forgot about the whole thing.

A couple of weeks later, another girl came to me with a complaint.

"Mr. T," she said, "there are some girls beading in the middle of the bathroom floor!"



I walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. It was answered by one the two girls who had previously asked me for the quiet space.

"Umm," I said, "are you beading in here?"

"Yes," said the girl, "It was the only place we could find that wasn't windy and noisy."

"Well, this isn't a good place for that. You're taking up a lot of space and making everyone walk around you. Plus, people want privacy when they come in here. And, it's really unsanitary in here. You'll have to find someplace else."

The beaders grumbled, but they left.

A couple of weeks later, I got another complaint.

"Those girls are beading in the bathroom again!"

I walked over, knocked on the door and after the same girl opened it again, asked, crossly, "Didn't I ask you to do that somewhere else?"

"But," said the girl, "we cleaned the floor with Purel!"