Ambience Matters

I've come to the profound conclusion that appearances matter a great deal.

I work in a place that is profoundly depressing. The carpets are quite worn and soiled and I'm sure that underneath those carpets the pads are covered with mold. The air ducts are dirty with years of use and little to no attention paid to their maintenance and the walls of my room are a nondescript gray color - partitions on 2 sides and cinder block for the other 2 walls. The lighting is typical fluorescent lighting. There are no windows, nor is there a door.

It's a high school classroom and some 120 kids make their way in and out of it 5 days a week, 10 months a year (well ok, about 8.5 after all the breaks).

The kids are another story. They show up in pants that are obviously designed as pajamas or at best, lounge wear; jeans are 3 sizes too big except for the new skinny jeans which are actually leggings masquerading as jeans (2 sizes too small). Girls with too much mass show up wearing tops with too little fabric.

Some kids have never held a bar of soap, a container of deodorant or a brush.

And we teachers have begun to slide down that slope as well. We don't dress professionally as our teachers did, because we've ruined too many pairs of hose or trousers or a nice blouse fighting the copy or mimeograph machines (not the old ones with purple ink, but the "Risos" types) or because our budgets won't allow for a serious clothing allowance - there are too many other things competing for our dollars (like the cost of food and gasoline). And the effort to plan, teach, grade and communicate with kids, other teachers, administrators and parents is overwhelming.

It's almost too much.

And I came to this brilliant observation standing in a dressing room trying on a pair of stretch jeans designed to make you look better. They did. I felt svelte! I looked at the ensemble I'd worn for the day and wondered why I felt compelled to dress in enough fabric to construct a yurt.

Well, the pants had been on sale, and I like them even if they were about a size too large. I felt fat and these - well these made that worse, really. But they were functional.

Happily, these far more flattering jeans were also on sale, so I bought 2 pairs. I went home and got on the net in search of more flattering tops. I found several which I'm using as incentive to get with the program and lose these 25 extra pounds.

Husband Dave did his own research into the issue and found some good research suggesting that drinking water exclusively (rather than relying on sodas, coffee or anything other than herbal teas) could help with weight loss and overall health, so we're going to test that from now through January.

So here's my plan: I need menus, workouts and a schedule! For my classroom, I need to bring in what might help brighten the room. I'm limited because I can't paint the walls, rip up the carpet or install windows to let the sun in. But I can scrape the old tape off the walls, reduce the clutter (and adding more file cabinets or bookshelves has to be a last resort because cost will be borne by me) and find candles to refresh the air - as will plants such as airplane/spider plants and others (don't recall which right now, but I'll research).

Music as background might help - I love stuff like Getz/Gilberto (samba) and Joe Sample or Earl Klugh (or Leo Kottke). Old stuff, yeah, but would work.

Tiki music (Martin Denny!). Framed art (or at least laminated prints).

I can use the last days before Christmas break to begin the transformation! Off to create a list!