The Many Miserable Adventures of Sixth Grade Lunch

We all know that lunch time during school hours is pretty much the most freedom you can get besides recess. You can say just about anything you want and get away with it, eat, and talk about any subject you want but most of all you get to eat... because at that point you're starving. Well, I don't know about you, but by 1:05 I'm starving and that is my lunch time... -_-

Well, today, I have a story to tell you, so get out your popcorn and get comfortable; Chelsea is going to tell a story!

Two years ago, I was in sixth grade and for where I live, that's still in Elementary school. (Kinder-6 = Elementary, 7-8 = Middle School, 9-12 = High School) And, since we were in Elementary the teachers were in that you're-still-kids mode. Yes, we were still kids but they treated us like kids. As in, they didn't treat us like we were eleven and twelve year olds, they treated us like we were like five. Oh, wait, did I specific WHICH teachers were the ones who babied us? The teachers that monitored us during lunch period. Not the ladies who serve it, the ladies who supervise it. Here are a few things that they enforced to keep us quiet; trust me guys, I was getting worrie...

• The Yacker-Tracker
• The Quiet Cups
• The Isolation Table

The Yacker-Tracker

The Yacker-Tracker is like a street light, with the three lights and all but what it does is that it detects noise. Here let me explain. If the noise was at a reasonably low level, the green light would be lit. If it got just a degree louder, the light would transfer to the yellow light. And then if it got louder, another degree the red would lit up and a siren would blare; like a police car. It was shrill and annoying. And when we set if off, it wasn't THAT loud. Let's consider some factors before we say that we were being loud. And when I say "we" I mean the entire fifth and sixth grade and that totals to about eight people. There's one factor, there's EIGHTY of us in a spacious, cavernous room that literally amplifies sound, and doesn't absorb it. That's the other factor. Things echo in that room, it's not our faults.
Luckily, we only set off the red light about two times, so we didn't have a "talking to" by the Vice Principle. I always wonder why the Vice Principles are always the more scarier ones? I mean, their over-all presence is looming and intimidating... and why are they always so TALL?!

The Quiet Cups & The Isolation Table

Let me explain the the Quiet Cups first of all because the Isolation Table and Quiet Cups go hand and hand. The Quiet Cups were introduced about mid-year for us and they were strongly enforced. They were basically plastic cups that one of the lunch teachers would put on your table and you had to absolutely be silent if they were on your table.
The Isolation table was half of a normal table and pushed up against a wall, so that you face the wall whenever you sit down you face the wall. This is suppose to get you to not talk... which doesn't work sometimes because all you have to do it turn your head and talk to the person next to you.

Here's my experience with the Quiet Cups and the Isolation Table:
I sat at my normal table, well the one that was assigned to me. There were about twenty tables total and could hold about fifteen people. Each homeroom teacher had their designed table and I sat at mine. I remember, the girl next to me made me laugh and as I was laughing; and you know, it wasn't a loud laugh or anything, I feel two taps on my shoulder.
It's like a horror movie at that point. My face melts into a grimace and I slowly turn around to see that teacher standing behind me. I couldn't even muster an innocent smile and wave. Silently, she pointed to a Quiet Cup, WHICH I swear I wasn't on there before I started laughing, then at me and then behind her to the Isolation Table.
Reluctantly, I stood, gathered my things and trudged for the Isolation Table. I sat down alongside another boy, who I didn't know and I sat there for a second thinking, Okay, that cup was seriously not there before I started laughing...
I turned to the boy beside me and asked, "Why are you here?"
He shrugged, "Dunno."
I agreed, "Me either..."

Okay, either I'm crazy or those lunch teachers were nuts - no crazy. They were so adamant about making us be quiet... it was pathetic. And... I learned how to say three things from them, all of them sign language. "Yes" is when you ball up into a fist and knock it like you're knocking on a friggin' door. "No" was your index and your middle finger clamping down onto your thumb and "bathroom" was you index and middle crossing over each other. And we HAD TO - I mean, they gave us no choice, we HAD TO answer their questions and ask for things in friggin' sign language... And they won't let you do anything until they had figured out how to ask for it in sign language. It was really pointless and I don't know HOW that was going to aid help us when we're adults...
-_-

Am I crazy or are those teachers nuts or what?

~Chelsea