Published on KQED (NPR) Perspectives Sep 3, 2020
https://www.kqed.org/perspectives/201601140236/sandhya-acharya-all-better
When the first day of school rolled in, the teachers had a surprise planned for the first graders. We stopped at school to wave and say a socially distanced hello and collected a plastic box full of tissue wrapped packages. The kids were instructed to only open it with the whole class a full four days later. We kept the box in the car to make it easier for the six-year-old to stay away. Several times a day he came and asked how many days were left to open the box. We counted with him. It was hard, but he waited.
Finally came the day for all twenty-four kids to open it together. My son gingerly slid the ribbon off the plastic box. Inside were many mysterious things, all neatly packaged so he couldn’t tell what they were. Instructed by the teacher, the kids went through name tags, login badges, workbooks. But not everything. The plan was that every day they hold a package of a certain color, smell it, shake it to hear the contents, and take a guess of what might be inside before opening it. It is a test of endurance and all of them are faring very well.
Today they opened a pouch containing pencils, sharpeners, erasers, pencil grips, and a little panda pencil cap. They showed each other the different colored pouches each one had. Together they sharpened one pencil and kept the other three back in the pouch. They discussed the purposes of the two holes in their sharpeners. They held the pale pink eraser in their tiny hands and tried the pencil grip with their thumb and index fingers. Then they looked at the little panda pencil cap. It was no bigger than their thumb, back and white ending with a little brown clip, “The clip comes off,” someone yelled through the screen “and you can place it on the pencil bottom.” “You can also use it to cover the sharp point,” another suggested. “And you can use it as a puppet,” another added.
I watched my six-year-old hold his little panda pencil cap. His little fingers tenderly cradling it, his face lit with awe and delight. COVID might have robbed these kids of many precious moments, but the teachers showed me how little thoughtful gestures can help create special moments with what we have. After the class, my six-year-old bounced around the house saying “Little Panda made everything better.” I agreed.