In fifth grade students helped serve lunch in the cafeteria. I was excited to get out of class – even if it meant dishing up 600 sloppy joes.
After a week of helping the lunch ladies it was back to class as usual. A few weeks later the opportunity again presented itself. However, this time my teacher would not allow it because I had not made up the work I missed the last time.
“Wait.” I thought to myself, “I wasn’t in class but you still want me to do the work that the kids in class did?”
To me, school and class were just what I was supposed to do. The classwork was completely abstracted from any meaning.