The happy life of teacher librarians: a dusty day

Like many of us today, home and the journey to school and school itself were brown experiences, dust in the air, the sky brown too, the wind whirling dust and visibility reduced; the colour of the day oddly orange as the sun struggled through.  Dust from the inland brought by gale force winds has changed the look of the day and the world around us in an unusual way.  Even in my office you can (barely) smell/taste it. 


Before school conversation:

Miss?

Yup?

The dust is scary...

Nope, it's dust. Brown stuff.  Flying dirt.

I guess...We'll be allowed to go home if it gets too dusty, won't we?

And that would be why?

Because it's dusty.

Right. Because it's dusty, we'll send you out INTO the dust to walk home instead of keeping you at school where we have buildings that you can be in, protected from the dust.

Oh. It wouldn't be sensible to send us home then, would it?

No.

I guess not. There isn't a rule about sending us home if it gets too dusty, like the one about when it's too hot?

Not to my knowledge.

Oh well.

You can always hose your lawn after school and see if you get a rates notice from Dubbo, as a man said on the radio this morning...

(they take a moment to digest this, then chuckle).



Cheers

Ruth

PS If you'd like to see a gallery of pictures like the one below, the Sydney Morning Herald has one, including this unusual view of the Sydney Opera House - click here.