The School is a short story by Donald Barthelme. You can read it online here. It begins,
Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that… that was part of their education, to see how, you know, the root systems… and also the sense of responsibility, taking care of things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
It wouldn’t have been so bad except that just a couple of weeks before the thing with the trees, the snakes all died.
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...I'm not excited having my grandchildren going to school this year.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's scary :(
DeleteI'd be happier if the spiders all died.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. Spiders are one of my least favorites.
DeleteInteresting place to leave you hanging. I'm glad I don't have children or that I'm not a teacher or student myself this year. I worry most for Iowa. Their governor mandates ALL schools must open in person, regardless, even though Iowa has a 79% rate of covid increase. Too bad she can't be kicked out of office for putting every family with children or teachers at risk.
ReplyDeleteI try to stop at a place that'll encourage clicking through to read the whole thing ;)
DeleteBarthelme is an author that I have been meaning to read forever. Somehow I don't get around to it. This sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeletebe well... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I had never heard of this author.
DeleteSpiders aren’t my favorite
ReplyDeleteMe either!
DeleteSchool and spiders, not topics that enthrall me after so many years teaching! Valerie
ReplyDeleteYes! And school these days are a whole new ball game :(
DeleteThe grandchildren will be starting back at school quite shortly, and they are looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteJust hoping it all works out ok.
All the best Jan
I do hope the schooling works this year. It'll be hard.
DeleteI don't understand the ending. Gerbils wouldn't walk into a room...or knock. So what it supposed to represent something else..confusing. Whole thing was very dark.
ReplyDeleteThe steadily increasing importance of the deaths and death being so _present_ made me wonder where it would lead. And then it ends with the gerbil coming in when they all died earlier. A new life to care for.
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