My Ecosystem is an Office

Although I don't work directly in a school, my office is in the same building that houses the Urban Promise School. I see my role in the school as the one who comes in and riles up all the kids during lunch or after-care, and then leaves when things start to get out of control. Yeah, you know the teachers are really loving me.

If you were to come and visit our school, you would see a large bulletin board outside the Grade 2 classroom covered with drawings. The kids are learning about ecosystems, and each one chose one to draw with a caption underneath stating "My ecosystem is _________ ". Most of the kids picked ecosystems such as a jungle, a pond, an ocean or a forest. But one little boy's drawing caught my interest. His didn't include any trees, animals or bodies of water. Instead, the drawing was of a house and some streets. There are people playing basketball on one side, and another person holding some kind of object on the other. The caption?

My ecosystem is the Hood.

How funny is that?? Only slightly troubling was the fact that the "object" one of the people was holding was a switchblade. But hey, it's got some realism to it, I suppose.