In school cafeterias across the nation (probably the world, but maybe not Japan), the refrain is the same: please (please) remember to clean up after yourself. A few weeks into the school year, staff in the Child Nutrition Program (CNP) at ASFA report that (already) we could be doing a better job of heeding that call. We asked a few members of our school community why that's a problem, one that might even transcend the lunchroom. Here's a lightly edited sampling of what they had to say:
I think it's a good habit to learn to clean up after yourself, to take care of your things, take care of your spaces, take care of yourself. It's also important to not leave a mess behind that you know somebody else will take responsibility for. Our Blackbox Theater is also a classroom, and people leave behind scripts and water bottles and pencil pouches and highlighters all the time, and it bothers me personally because I feel like I have to clean up the space every time I go in there in order to use it . . . so I'm trying to encourage students to learn how to pick up after themselves so that the space is there when they need it —Zoe Wirt, Theater Arts Instructor
It's really important because [the cafeteria] is a shared space. Pretty much everybody eats lunch in there at one point or another, even if you're going into the stairwells to eat, you're still going into the lunchroom. And it's one of the places that people see when they're, like, touring or whatever. So having a messy lunchroom makes us students feel less motivated because we're, like, kind of disgusted, and it sets a bad image for any people who are visiting. —Violet Marty, Creative Writing 11th Grade Student
Cleaning up after yourself in the lunchroom is important for a few reasons, not least of which is it helps prevent people from getting sick and spreading colds to each other. . . . Also if you don't clean up after yourself, the CNP staff probably has to clean up after you, and they have things to do. They just cooked for you all day, and they shouldn't have to clean up your stuff. . . . I think that maintaining a workspace or a creative space or even, like, a psychological space has more to do with maintaining a relationship with that space than the way it looks. . . . So keeping space has more to do with interacting with yourself and your space in ways that make sense. I think if you're sharing [space], you need to have a lot of communication about what everyone's needs are who are sharing that space so that you can arrive at shared systems that work for everyone. . . . There's always a way to make it work together if you are able to articulate what you need and why. —Mazerick Betko, Creative Writing & Media Arts Instructor
What are your thoughts? If it's important to you that we clean up after ourselves in the cafeteria and beyond, tell us why in the comments section. How does tending to our shared spaces impact your thinking, learning, and creativity while you're on campus?
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